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Passage Drill Videos 141 videos

AP English Language and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill
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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?

AP English Language and Composition 1.7 Passage Drill
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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 7. What is the principal rhetorical function of paragraphs one to three?

AP English Language and Composition 1.8 Passage Drill
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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 1, Problem 8. The quotation marks in the third paragraph chiefly serve to what?

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AP English Language and Composition 2.3 Passage Drill 236 Views


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Description:

AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 2, Problem 3. The subject of the passage can best be described as what?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by bloodshed.

00:07

It's the creepy one right next to the woodshed. [ scream ]

00:12

All right, check out the following passage.

00:14

[ mumbles ]

00:21

[ mumbling continues ]

00:30

You done? All right.

00:31

The subject of the passage can best be described as... what?

00:36

And here are the potential answers.

00:39

[ mumbles ]

00:41

Okay, well, here we go. So, what's this question asking?

00:44

Well, it wants to know about the subject of the entire passage.

00:48

Not one paragraph, not one line, the whole kit and caboodle.

00:51

Not really any shortcuts here. We kind of have to

00:53

read the whole thing from start to finish

00:55

and hopefully form some sense of what it's all about.

00:57

Let's start with A.

00:58

Is it about the precariousness of civil war?

01:02

Well, there's no doubt war can be described as precarious,

01:05

but it's pretty broad. This passage is referring specifically

01:08

to one king and one war

01:09

and doesn't seem to be making a commentary about war in general,

01:12

which would nix option B, too.

01:14

So it's gone. All right, what about C -

01:17

a revolt of secular followers against religious governments?

01:22

Huh. We didn't even get into the religion thing until

01:24

later in the passage, so it has to be more than that.

01:28

E - the origins of a historical lapse in diplomacy?

01:32

Well, it might be.

01:34

But the passage doesn't really place this event in

01:36

a historical perspective, so we can't be sure.

01:39

D is the best answer.

01:40

The difficulties facing the king at the start of the civil war.

01:44

Yeah, everything in the passage relates to that one:

01:47

botched negotiations, lazy and incompetent underlings,

01:50

a reputation as a dupe.

01:51

When you think about it,

01:52

it's kind of incredible the guy never ran for U.S. Congress.

01:57

[ applause ]

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