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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 2, Problem 3. The subject of the passage can best be described as what?
Take a look at this shmoopy AP English Language and Composition question and see if you can figure out which answer best describes the development...
AP English Language and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill 843 Views
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Description:
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?
- English I EOC Assessment / Vocabulary
- English I EOC Assessment / Non-linear Plot Development
- Conventions / Apply knowledge of language to make effective choices for meaning or style
- Conventions / Apply knowledge of language to make effective choices for meaning or style
- Conventions / Apply knowledge of language to make effective choices for meaning or style
- Comprehension and Inference / Figurative Language, Idioms, and Phrases
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by goo-zum-goo,
- 00:07
baby talk on Earth, but the official language of Planet Gooz.
- 00:12
All right, we're skimming... We're skimming...
- 00:13
We're thinking... We're skimming... Now we're bored and we're done skimming.
Full Transcript
- 00:18
The speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four is to, uh, what?
- 00:23
And here are the potential answers.
- 00:25
And onomatopoeia is not a toilet joke. All right, you done?
- 00:29
Okay, well onomatopoeia is when a word imitates a sound.
- 00:32
Examples include words like
- 00:34
"splash," "cuckoo,"
- 00:36
the slightly sinister "goo-zum-goo-zum-goo,"
- 00:39
which the speaker thinks sounds like the innocent cooing of a baby.
- 00:44
For the record, if we ever heard a baby talk this way,
- 00:46
we'd run for our neighborhood exorcist.
- 00:48
But, uh, that's a different story.
- 00:49
Anyway, the point of this question is to figure out why the speaker is using onomatopoeia here.
- 00:54
Choice A claims the speaker is going for a laugh with this goo-zum-goo business,
- 00:58
but we have a feeling the speaker has a better reason in mind.
- 01:00
Which is good because "goo-zum-goo" wasn't all that funny in the first place.
- 01:04
D seems like a no, as well.
- 01:06
The author doesn't highlight the fact that babies all over the universe
- 01:09
spend their days saying "goo-zum-goo."
- 01:10
Although, on the Planet Gooz, even the adults go around
- 01:13
saying it all day. Like, smell you later.
- 01:16
All right, to option C we say, "Are you serious?"
- 01:19
"Goo-zum-goo" doesn't sound at all harmonious,
- 01:21
and the speaker doesn't say anything to support that idea.
- 01:24
As for B, if anyone has a vivid memory of their murmurs at two months,
- 01:28
well, that's a whole different kettle of fish.
- 01:30
The correct answer is E.
- 01:32
In the first paragraph, the speaker says
- 01:34
"To grown-ups, this humming means nothing... but to the baby
- 01:37
it is perfect music."
- 01:39
So he's definitely trying to emphasize the gap between what
- 01:41
newborns and adults would think was a chart topper.
- 01:44
Some say the same discrepancy exists
- 01:46
with Justin Bieber songs.
- 01:48
[ cuckoo clock sounds ]
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