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SAT Reading: Why Does Thoreau Use the Phrase "Mechanical Aids" in this Passage?
58 Views

Thoreau was all about simplicity; anything that took away from his vision was the enemy. Mechanical aids were one of them. Guess he had to train a...

SAT Reading: Suggesting a Reason for Thoreau's Word Choice
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Thoreau wants our lives to be simplified. He claims that we gain less from life when we over-complicate things.

How Does Thoreau Feel about Commerce?
41 Views

How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...

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SAT Reading 2.2 Sentence Completion 176 Views


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Description:

Sentence Completion Drill 2: 2

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

To Shmoop or not to Shmoop, that is... not this question...

00:08

Which word could fill in the blank so that the sentence below makes sense?

00:11

I watered the houseplant every day, so I felt a certain sense of pride in knowing that I

00:15

had helped to blank it as I watched it grow.

00:18

Here are the potential answers.

00:24

Whoever's talking here is bragging about their green thumb.

00:28

So the word in the blank has got to have something to do with helping things "grow."

00:33

We can eliminate (B) and (D) immediately, since "neglect" and "starvation" don't

00:38

exactly contribute to healthy houseplants...

00:40

...which suddenly explains why no one asks us to house sit for them anymore.

00:45

(A) is in the right ball park. Fertilizing a plant definitely helps it grow.

00:50

"Fertilize" refers to adding extra special nutrients, though, and earlier in the sentence

00:56

the speaker only mentioned watering the plant. We can cross (E) off the list as well, because

01:01

we don't usually "increase" to describe the growing of plants.

01:05

The answer can only be (C), which totally makes sense. When you nurture a plant correctly,

01:09

it most certainly grows.

01:12

Unless we take care of them, because then they die horrible deaths. Really...don't

01:16

give us your plants. We're not even joking here.

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