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AP English Language and Composition Videos 152 videos

AP English Language and Composition 3.7 Passage Drill
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Which answer best describes the theme of the following passage? And if you say "fission chips," we'll give you half credit. The AP test graders mig...

AP English Language and Composition 3.5 Passage Drill
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AP English Language and Composition 4.6 Passage Drill
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Take a look at this shmoopy question and see if you can figure out which device the speaker employs the most.

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AP English Literature and Composition 1.9 Passage Drill 4 259 Views


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Description:

AP English Literature and Composition 1.9 Passage Drill 4. Lines 32-34 are best understood to mean what?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Soft Pipes. Not the greatest for indoor plumbing.

00:24

Lines 32-34 are BEST understood to mean... what?

00:28

And here are the potential answers...

00:33

Okay, so this question wants us to examine a few lines of the poem and... translate them into English.

00:38

In the words of Robert Frost, they want us to "say it worse."

00:45

Here are lines 32 through 34:

00:47

To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

00:53

And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

00:57

Okay, well we're going to an altar, so... is somebody getting married!

01:01

Shoot -- where are they registered? We need to get them something!

01:06

Alas... it doesn't appear that a wedding is one of the answer choices, so... must be some

01:09

other kind of altar...

01:12

We also have a "heifer lowing at the skies"... or... a cow mooing up a storm.

01:19

There's also a priest involved...

01:22

Ah! Sounds like this cow is about to be sacrificed... and not just because the "men and maidens"

01:29

have decided to grill out on Memorial Day.

01:32

In fact, if we look at line 31, the line directly preceding these 3, we see that it reads:

01:37

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

01:39

Well, there we go. The author really spells it all out for us.

01:43

Clearly, it isn't a maiden being led anywhere, so D and E are out...

01:47

...there's no mention of a shepherd so C is no good...

01:50

...and the cow only wishes it were being led to pasture. A isn't it either.

01:54

No -- our answer is B: a priest is preparing for a sacrifice.

01:59

And hey -- he might also get a nice, new jacket out of the deal...

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