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CAHSEE ELA: Reading Videos 100 videos

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CAHSEE ELA 3.2 Fluency 184 Views


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Description:

CAHSEE ELA 3.2 Fluency. What is the best way to describe the meaning of play it by ear  in the previous sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour... Merrill wasn't sure when water polo practice

00:07

would be over, so he didn't want to buy movie tickets in advance; he told Ben they should

00:12

play it by ear instead. What is the BEST way to describe the meaning

00:16

of play it by ear in the previous sentence?

00:19

And here are the potential answers:

00:25

What does "play it by ear" mean?

00:26

Ok, some ancient history. Not that ancient.

00:30

In the old days, when saloons had piano players instead of stereo speakers and iTunes playlists,

00:35

music was shared on sheet music.

00:39

But the best piano players could just HEAR the music and then play it -- that is, play it by ear.

00:44

Yeah, not this way.

00:46

This way.

00:48

The question is really about what's allegory and what's literal -- i.e. what's a phrase

00:52

that's a symbol for something else -- like play it by ear --

00:55

...meaning that we wait for each note to come and then... play it -- spontaneously.

01:01

Versus literal - which would be, yeah this.

01:06

When you play it by ear, you just play it as you feel it and see what comes.

01:11

Answer: A.

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