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ACT English 1.5 Style 296 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Style Drill 1, Problem 5. Which choice best matches the style of the passage?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by elevated language. Oxygen masks may be

00:09

required.

00:10

How would you correct the underlined portion below, if at all?

00:13

As one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill uplifted Great

00:18

Britain—and the world—with his fantastic speeches.

00:29

This sentence is about as elevated as it gets.

00:31

Both the topic...history...and the elevated language...uplifted...signal that the underlined

00:38

portion needs to be as highfalutin as possible.

00:41

Knowing this allows us to eliminate (A) pretty easily.

00:44

"Fantastic" is the kind of adjective that an elementary teacher scribbles on a test

00:48

beside a smiley face, not the sort of word we use to describe one of the greatest orators

00:53

ever.

00:54

Choice (B) doesn't make the cut either.

00:57

Even if we didn't know the meaning of "repartee"—which means to joke or banter with someone—"witty"

01:02

doesn't quite seem like it can uplift a nation.

01:05

(D) is suitably elevated, but the word "uplifting" is used elsewhere in the sentence.

01:10

This redundancy downgrades (D)'s smarty-pants rating and takes it out of the running.

01:12

Which leaves us with choice (C), the correct answer. The word "oration" is a fancy

01:17

word for fancy speeches given on fancy occasions.

01:28

Fancy that...

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