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ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 2, Problem 6. Which verb best matches the subject's emotional state?
ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 2, Problem 1. What is the correct tense for the underlined portion?
ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 2, Problem 7. Which pronouns properly convey the meaning of the sentence?
ACT English 5.7 Passage Drill 178 Views
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Description:
ACT English: Passage Drill 5, Problem 7. Which spelling of the underlined word is correct in this sentence?
Transcript
- 00:03
Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by complex nets.
- 00:06
Be grateful; it took a while to untangle them.
- 00:31
How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all? There?
- 00:38
And here are the potential answers...
- 00:44
There, they’re, their...
Full Transcript
- 00:46
It may not sound like it, but we just said three words with three completely different meanings.
- 00:52
The sentence in question requires the version of the word that’s a possessive pronoun.
- 00:56
Whichever word we choose has to tell us that these webs belong to orb-weaving spiders.
- 01:02
Trust us, you don’t want to challenge an orb-weaver over ownership of its web.
- 01:06
Option (A) suggests the word “there” spelled T.H.E.R.E, but this is incorrect.
- 01:11
This version of the word definitely gets points for versatility. It can be an adverb, adjective,
- 01:16
noun, pronoun, or interjection, depending on how it’s used in a sentence.
- 01:21
One thing it can never be, however, is a possessive pronoun.
- 01:24
So (A) is off the list.
- 01:26
Now let’s take a look at choice (B), which suggests “they’re” spelled T.H.E.Y. apostrophe R.E.
- 01:32
This option is also wrong because it’s a contraction for “they are,”
- 01:36
not a possessive pronoun. If we ever get confused about this idea,
- 01:39
we just say the sentence with “they are” in it instead of “they’re.”
- 01:43
Listen to this...
- 01:44
“They are webs are complex nets...”
- 01:47
Sounds like one too many “ares,” right?
- 01:50
This sentence needs another verb like it needs a hole in its head, so we’ll nix choice (B).
- 01:54
The correct choice is answer (C).
- 01:56
Their, T.H.E.I.R., is the correct spelling of the possessive pronoun “their.”
- 02:01
Now those orb-weavers can be reassured that everybody knows to whom those webs belong.
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