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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 4.4 Passage Drill 203 Views
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Description:
AP English Language and Composition 4.4 Passage Drill. In this passage, "fatuous" is best defined as what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:04
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by big words.
- 00:07
Because little words don't have their driver's licenses yet.
- 00:10
[ baby cries ]
- 00:12
All right, you done skimming? Probably not.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
[ mumbles ]
- 00:18
[ mumbling continues ]
- 00:24
Now we're done skimming. Okay, in this passage,
- 00:27
"fatuous" (lines 13 to 16)
- 00:30
is best defined as what?
- 00:32
And here are the potential answers.
- 00:35
Fatuous. What a great word.
- 00:39
So the first time the speaker uses the word, he basically implies
- 00:42
that the question can't be taken seriously.
- 00:45
When he uses the word again, he says the question is
- 00:48
extra silly because, in fact, nobody knows what the question actually is.
- 00:52
Wow. No such thing as a stupid question, huh?
- 00:55
Well, we have to say that option A is looking the best to us right now.
- 00:59
Silly and pointless go together like peanut butter and jelly.
- 01:03
First, we'll nix choice B.
- 01:05
"Indulgent" means self-serving,
- 01:08
but the speaker isn't accusing the committee of being that way.
- 01:11
We can eliminate choice D, as well.
- 01:13
"Vacuous" means empty-headed or unintelligent.
- 01:16
Even though the speaker is picking apart the committee's question,
- 01:18
he recognizes that they understand where he's coming from with his critique.
- 01:22
He might sound a little arrogant, but he's not standing there calling everyone a bunch of dumb-dumbs.
- 01:27
Choice E doesn't work, either.
- 01:29
"Trivial" refers to something that's small or unimportant.
- 01:32
Even if the speaker thinks that the question is off the mark,
- 01:35
we doubt he'd agree that the question of how to make
- 01:38
the best of life itself isn't worth anybody's time.
- 01:41
He goes on and on and on about it for the whole passage.
- 01:44
The guy's obviously put some think time into it himself.
- 01:48
And now we're down to choices C and A.
- 01:50
Not gonna lie, option C is a close second to our top choice, A.
- 01:54
But the point here is that the question doesn't have a point until
- 01:57
it's clarified, not that it's unproductive.
- 01:59
Option A takes home the prize.
- 02:01
But until it figures out the meaning of life, will it know if it
- 02:04
really won?
- 02:07
[ squeak ]
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