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Description:

AP English Language and Composition: Comprehension Drill 1, Problem 3. What can the "personality" that the speaker describes be characterized as?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Roman empire.

00:06

It was kind of like the empire in Star Wars,

00:08

except Roman storm troopers wore skirts.

00:12

Yeah. They were kinda... funny-looking.

00:14

Not all in white.

00:17

[ mumbles ]

00:20

You done reading?

00:21

[ mumbles ]

00:26

[ mumbling continues ]

00:45

And we're done. Okay.

00:46

The "personality" that the speaker describes can be characterized

00:50

as one - efficient, two - expressive,

00:53

three - adventurous.

00:55

And here are the potential answers.

00:57

Hmm. Which? Which? One, two, three?

01:00

Couple of 'em? All of 'em? None of 'em? What do you think?

01:02

All right, well, the speaker tells us that Romans distrusted

01:05

personality, so we know that the speaker is defining this

01:09

artistic temperament by everything he thinks Romans are not.

01:14

Yeah.

01:15

Options A and B claim that one - efficiency is

01:18

a characteristic of the personality the author is describing.

01:21

But we're gonna have to disagree with both choices.

01:24

Efficiency was something Romans thought was cool,

01:26

not something they thought was weird and suspect.

01:29

The speaker specifically tells us that the empire strove to have

01:32

efficient soldiers rather than poets and painters.

01:36

Guess pretty pictures weren't so helpful when trying to conquer the New World.

01:40

Now onto option D, which claims that the distrusted personality is

01:44

solely made up of three - adventurousness.

01:47

Well, we know it's at least partly right, because according to the speaker,

01:50

Romans didn't love adventures of the spirit.

01:52

Can we just point out that that statement is a little questionable? Hmm? Hmm?

01:56

Maybe they weren't artistically adventurous, but they did build one of the biggest

01:59

empires, like, ever.

02:02

That had to have taken a certain kind of adventurous spirit, you know?

02:04

Well, whatevs.

02:05

It's clear that this question is using "adventurous" in a slightly different context.

02:09

So D is just almost right.

02:12

The trouble with D, however, is that it leaves out two - expressive.

02:16

The speaker tells us that the Romans preferred practical forms

02:19

to expressive ones, choosing to borrow art instead of create it.

02:23

This tells us that C is the right answer.

02:25

According to the speaker, both expressiveness and adventurousness were

02:29

part of the artistic personality that Romans so mistrusted.

02:32

Anybody else get the feeling that this author is a Roman hater? Hmm? Hmm?

02:37

Not illegal?

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