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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?
AP English Literature and Composition 1.1 Passage Drill 7. The primary purpose of this passage is what?
Wishing upon a star may help you pass your AP English Language and Composition test, but answering this question would be a safer bet.
AP English Language and Composition 3.8 Passage Drill 225 Views
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Description:
Wishing upon a star may help you pass your AP English Language and Composition test, but answering this question would be a safer bet.
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by star navigation.
- 00:07
It's like GPS,
- 00:09
but without the nagging voice.
- 00:14
All right.
Full Transcript
- 00:15
[ mumbles ]
- 00:23
Huxley...
- 00:25
[ mumbles ] Chessboard... chessboard...
- 00:30
All right, which of the following most accurately rephrases
- 00:33
Helps' observation about stars,
- 00:35
"Ah... elsewhere"?
- 00:37
Yeah, lines 34 through 38.
- 00:39
All right, and here are the potential answers.
- 00:41
Yeah, you can just read it for yourself.
- 00:42
We're not gonna mumble.
- 00:44
Okay, let's get to it.
- 00:45
Well, in the preceding sentence, the author explains
- 00:47
how contemplating the universe can give us
- 00:49
a more reasonable perspective on a terrible, horrible, no-good,
- 00:53
very bad day.
- 00:54
In the following sentence, the author says that
- 00:55
the stars' knack for therapy is a bigger deal than
- 00:58
their ability to guide ships.
- 01:00
Well, this is obviously a person who's never been lost at sea.
- 01:03
Choice A definitely does not get it.
- 01:06
Helps' main point isn't that the stars' morale boosting power is
- 01:10
lesser known than their power to help us navigate.
- 01:13
He's simply saying that the whole morale-boosting thing is more important.
- 01:17
Option D is a nice thought.
- 01:18
It'd be swell if everybody in the world would look up at
- 01:21
the stars and all be magically unified.
- 01:24
That's not what Helps is saying, though.
- 01:26
Even he is more of a pessimist than that.
- 01:28
Choice B and E are the closest we've had yet, but they take
- 01:31
the story too far.
- 01:33
They both seem to think that the stars have some kind of mind control
- 01:36
powers over human beings. Scary prospect.
- 01:38
Just imagine what they might make us do.
- 01:41
Actually, don't imagine that.
- 01:43
All right, in the end, choice C is the best answer.
- 01:45
"Navigation, shmavigation," says Helps.
- 01:48
The important thing is that the stars help us see that
- 01:51
our everyday concerns are nothing in the face of
- 01:53
the great, big everything that's all around us.
- 01:56
We bet if Helps were lost and starving at sea, he might
- 01:58
be a little less into deep thoughts
- 02:00
and a little more into finding the nearest port with fresh water
- 02:04
and a Denny's.
- 02:06
[ noise ]
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