ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by a sense of foreboding. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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The writer would like to insert an additional sentence here in order to create a better

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transition to the following paragraph. Which of the following would make the most effective transition?

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The clues here are the words "however" and "soon realized" in the first sentence of Paragraph

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4, which signal a contrast to the previous sentence. Whichever sentence the writer chooses

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to cap Paragraph 3 with needs a different tone than Paragraph 4's slightly ominous

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intro sentence. As soon as we hear that the cat doesn't like water, we know there's a bad moon on the rise.

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So if we're going to get the shift in tone we're looking for, the new sentence needs to sound reasonably hopeful.

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Choice (A) fails because it sounds too ominous. When we hear the sentence, "Little did I

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know what lay ahead," it makes us think a dude's around the corner with a knife.

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Or worse... a mother-in-law is dropping by for a surprise visit.

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Anyway, (A) doesn't contrast the first sentence in Paragraph 4, so we can cross it out.

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Choice (B) is a definite no because it's even more ominous than (A). It straight-up

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says that something went "terribly wrong." Most people wouldn't call that positive

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unless they're the sorts who like when bad things happen to them.

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Choice © doesn't work because the flow of logic is off. The sentence that will directly

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precede this new sentence is talking about all the stuff the writer got together in preparation

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for his or her kitty-bathing adventure. Thus, it feels a bit disjointed to jump from there

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to talking about how the cat needs to be cleaned as soon as possible.

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Choice (D) wins the day with the sentence, "We were ready for business." This flows

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logically from the preceding sentence and has the necessary positive connotation.

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Anybody who can be positive about bathing a cat is either certifiable, or the most positive thinker of all time.

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