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ACT Reading: Humanities Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the main purpose of this passage?
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SAT Reading 3.2 Long Passages 174 Views
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Description:
SAT Reading: Long Passages Drill 3, Problem 2
- Foreign Language / Arabic Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Korean Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Chinese Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Spanish Subtitled
- Information and Ideas / Interpreting words and phrases in context
- Product Type / SAT Reading
- Vocabulary / Analyze how an author uses the meaning of a key term
- Reading closely / Determining implicit meanings
Transcript
- 00:04
But soft! What Shmoop through yonder window breaks?
- 00:08
Here's that lovely little passage again.
- 00:10
Pause and review if the first time wasn't enough for you...
- 00:37
In line 6, the word "dabbling" implies that Muir...what?
- 00:41
And here are the potential answers...
Full Transcript
- 00:44
Although this question tries to disguise itself
- 00:46
as a run-of-the-mill vocabulary issue, we won't fall for its wily tricks.
- 00:55
In its most straightforward form, "dabbling" means to participate casually in an activity.
- 01:00
Here, though, we need to use this definition to propel ourselves toward bigger and better
- 01:04
meanings.
- 01:05
It's true that many people who dabble in a lot of different things never manage to
- 01:09
do anything big...
- 01:11
But the article makes it mega-clear that this isn't true of the mighty John Muir, who
- 01:16
accomplished all kinds of awesome things in his lifetime.
- 01:19
(C) gets it right... in that it recognizes the fact Muir dabbled in tons of different
- 01:25
things...
- 01:26
...but gets it totally wrong by saying he was a flop.
- 01:29
No doubt about it: this guy was a giant.
- 01:31
Choice (D) gets it all wrong as well.
- 01:34
Though Muir was a major dabbler, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about him if he wasn't
- 01:38
an expert specialist when it came to all things nature.
- 01:42
Sorry (D), you just don't know the guy like we do.
- 01:44
(E) makes it sound like John Muir was some kind of loser.
- 01:49
There's absolutely nothing in the article that talks about Muir not being respected.
- 01:53
In fact, it goes on and on about just how respected he was. (E) is a definite no.
- 01:58
This leaves only choice (A) on the table, telling us that the use of "dabble" in line
- 02:03
6 refers to Muir's decision to explore his many different passions...
- 02:08
which he managed to do pretty awesomely.
- 02:11
OK, we'll admit it. We've got a Muir-crush.
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