ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


ACT Reading Videos 80 videos

ACT Reading 1.1 Prose Fiction
1308 Views

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

ACT Reading 1.10 Prose Fiction
304 Views

Prose Fiction Drill 1.10. Which of the following best describes the narrator's attitude toward his father?

ACT Reading 1.2 Prose Fiction
264 Views

ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 2. Which of the following statements about the circumstances of the narrator's birth is not true?

See All

ACT Reading 1.10 Humanities Passage 270 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT Reading: Humanities Passage Drill 1, Problem 10. Which of the following is the best explanation of the term "tragedy of thought" in line 58?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Oxford University.

00:08

The more respected sister school of Cowford Tech.

00:39

Which of the following is the best explanation of the term "tragedy of thought" in line 58?

00:50

When the ACT references a line, we know we'd better go back and check it out... or else

00:54

we may live to regret it. We can see that the Professor specifically

00:57

notes that both Julius Caesar and Hamlet are plays that can be considered "tragedies of thought"...

01:03

...quite unlike tragedies of stupidity, like the sad saga of the flan we tried to make last night.

01:11

The professor specifically says that neither Macbeth nor Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy

01:15

of thought -- same as Julius Caesar and Hamlet -- so we can eliminate both (C) and (D).

01:21

(D) name-drops Macbeth and (C) gives a shout-out to those two Verona teens, so we're sure

01:28

that these answer choices can go. But what about (A)? Does it jibe with the

01:31

Professor's lecture?

01:33

Nah, Bradley tells us that a guy named Schlegel <<shlay-guhl>> placed the "tragedy of thought"

01:37

brand on Hamlet, and a professor named Dowden branded Julius Caesar that way.

01:42

All these smart guys agree that this type of tragedy occurs when a protagonist's intellect

01:46

brings him or her down.

01:48

We can take (A) out of the running because neither Bradley, Dowden, nor Schlegel say

01:51

anything about people being smart enough to perceive when something's tragic.

01:55

Honestly, it's usually pretty obvious.

01:58

This leaves only (B), which perfectly describes Bradley, Dowden, and Schlegel's idea of "tragedy of thought."

02:03

Does anybody else think that "Bradley, Dowden and Schlegel" would be a great name for a bagel place?

02:08

Assuming Schlegel doesn't branch off on his own with "Schlegel's Bagels"...

02:11

which would be a complete slam dunk...

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...

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?

ACT Reading 1.1 Natural Science Passage
257 Views

ACT Reading: Natural Science Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?

ACT Reading 1.1 Prose Fiction
1308 Views

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

ACT Reading 1.1 Social Science Passage
276 Views

ACT Reading: Social Science Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. According to Freud, how were dreams understood in what he refers to as the "prescienti...