We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

ACT English 4.9 Passage Drill 168 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill 4, Problem 9. If the writer deleted the underlined segment, what would the sentence lose?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by metal fingers. Great when we want to swiftly

00:08

make fortune cookies, bad when we want a nice massage.

00:30

If the writer were to delete the underlined phrase "fold the cookie in half to trap the

00:36

fortune inside," the sentence would primarily lose:

00:41

And here are the potential answers...

00:45

This one's a no-brainer. All we have to do is read the underlined phrase, remember what

00:48

it says, and match it with an answer choice that says the same basic thing.

00:52

We could do this with our eyes closed.

00:54

Well, that would probably make it hard for us to read, so we'll keep them open.

01:00

Option (A) is a definite no. The underlined phrase says nothing about how fortunes are

01:04

printed.

01:05

It would be cool if an ancient sage wrote them, but we bet they pop out of a printer.

01:10

Choice (B) is incorrect because the speed of the machine isn't mentioned.

01:14

We're guessing it's pretty fast, though. Chances are the Fortune III doesn't give a flip about

01:18

the Slow Food Movement.

01:21

(C) is wrong too; the phase doesn't fill us in on how many fortunes go into a cookie.

01:27

Though...we assume the number is one. Two fortunes seems greedy.

01:31

Looks like (D) wins the day. The underlined phrase describes exactly how the fortunes

01:36

are trapped inside the cookies. This is a detail of how the machines work, so (D) is

01:40

the correct answer.

01:41

We feel bad for the fortunes trapped inside the cookies.

01:44

Thus, we consider it an act of liberation every time we order Chinese.

Up Next

ACT English 2.2 Punctuation
2071 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?

Related Videos

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1067 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

ACT English 3.2 Punctuation
974 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?

ACT English 3.4 Punctuation
524 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?

ACT English 2.1 Punctuation
520 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?