ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Reading Videos 80 videos
ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?
ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 4. How does the narrator feel about the prediction made at his birth that he would have the ability...
AP® English Language and Composition: Comprehension Drill 1, Problem 1. The speaker would agree with all of the following statements except what?
ACT Reading 2.1 Prose Fiction 313 Views
Share It!
Description:
ACT Reading 2.1 Prose Fiction. Which of the following best describes the mood of this passage?
- Foreign Language / Arabic Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Chinese Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Korean Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Spanish Subtitled
- Reading / Main Idea
- Product Type / ACT Reading
- Literary Fiction / Narration and Tone
- Reading Literature / Analyze how author’s choices in structure create mystery, suspense, or surprise
- Reading Literature / Analyze how author’s choices in structure create mystery, suspense, or surprise
- ACT Reading / Author's Voice and Method
Transcript
- 00:03
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Edgar Allen Poe. Yeah, Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows himself.
- 00:33
Which of the following best describes the mood of this passage?
- 00:36
Oooo Mood rings, these were popular in your parent's days. And here are the possible answers:
- 00:45
Since the narrator tells us in the first few sentences that he wants revenge on Fortunato,
- 00:52
we're expecting something bad to happen.
Full Transcript
- 00:55
Really bad.
- 00:56
So one thing we're sure of right from the get-go is that any word with a positive connotation
- 01:01
is wrong. This makes "amusing" the easiest choice
- 01:05
to eliminate. Hint: hardly any of Poe's stories are what
- 01:09
we'd call amusing. Unless you have a seriously twisted sense of humor.
- 01:13
(B) is a definite no. "Melancholy" is a feeling of pensive sadness,
- 01:19
sometimes caused by... nothing at all.
- 01:21
Plenty of Poe's other characters are about as melancholy as it gets, but this protagonist
- 01:28
is out for revenge. He's got no time for moping around.
- 01:32
Choice (C) is incorrect.
- 01:33
Poe basically invented the horror genre, making "frightening" very tempting. There's
- 01:38
definitely a slightly scary tone to this specific passage as well, so we won't cross this
- 01:42
one off just yet. "Ominous" describes the sense that something
- 01:46
bad is about to happen.
- 01:47
Think of the moment before you tossed your clock radio into the bath.
- 01:51
"Ominous" better describes the feeling of tension in the passage than "frightening."
- 01:55
The frightening part comes later...
- 01:57
Especially when you're hanging out with Poe.
- 01:59
So the answer is (A) Ominous.
Related Videos
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: Humanities Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the main purpose of this passage?
ACT Reading: Natural Science Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?
ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?
ACT Reading: Social Science Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. According to Freud, how were dreams understood in what he refers to as the "prescienti...