ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


TNReady Videos 296 videos

ACT Reading 1.4 Prose Fiction
350 Views

ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 4. How does the narrator feel about the prediction made at his birth that he would have the ability...

AP English Language and Composition 1.1 Comprehension
449 Views

AP® English Language and Composition: Comprehension Drill 1, Problem 1. The speaker would agree with all of the following statements except what?

AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 5
245 Views

AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 5. Death is primarily characterized as what?

See All

ACT Reading 1.1 Prose Fiction 1308 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Shmoopy question, comin' at ya... You may have already read this passage, but

00:08

if you want to check it out again, just hit pause. We're not going anywhere.

00:19

Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?

00:24

And here are the potential answers...

00:31

Ok, so what is this question asking?

00:33

It wants to know if we can read an uber-long passage, and boil the whole thing down to a single, overarching idea.

00:44

What is this passage... all about? Let's go through the answer choices, one by one.

00:51

Is it to note the superstitions surrounding birth?

00:55

Well, there was that part where the neighborhood women said that David would be able to see

01:00

dead people.

01:01

But...it doesn't seem like the whole passage focuses on superstition.

01:09

What about B... "To describe the circumstances of the narrator's birth as well as offer hints

01:14

about his family and his community?"

01:16

Uh, yeah. That's exactly what it does. We hear a lot about David's birth, and we get

01:21

a general sense of the quirks of the people in his neighborhood.

01:25

Just to make sure, let's take a look at C and D.

01:28

"To emphasize that the narrator's family and neighbors were sea-going people?"

01:33

Nope. The passage never says anything about that. Adios, choice C

01:41

Finally... D? "To foreshadow the narrator's unhappy adulthood?"

01:46

Well, there's one line where the neighborhood ladies say David will be unlucky, but it's

01:51

definitely not the main idea.

01:52

So our answer is B.

01:54

As in, "Burial seems like a bad choice."

Related Videos

ACT Reading 1.5 Social Science Passage
1337 Views

ACT Reading 1.5 Social Science Passage. Based on its context in the passage, which of the following would be the best definition for the word...

Texas EOC English 2: 2.4 Understanding and Analysis of Literary Texts
623 Views

Want to pull an Oliver Twist and ask us for more? We've gotcha covered. Head over to /video/subjects/test-prep/texas-eoc-ii/texas-eoc-english-ii/ f...

Texas EOC English 2: 1.4 Understanding and Analysis of Literary Texts
231 Views

Want to pull an Oliver Twist and ask us for more? We've gotcha covered. Click on the link for more Texas EOC goodness. Porridge not included. 

ACT Reading 1.1 Humanities Passage
548 Views

ACT Reading: Humanities Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the main purpose of this passage?