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SAT Reading: Why Does Thoreau Use the Phrase "Mechanical Aids" in this Passage?
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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?
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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 4.1 Sentence Completion 174 Views


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Description:

SAT Reading Sentence Completion Drill 4, Problem 1

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:02

As we live and Shmoop -- another question... Which words could fill in the blank so that

00:08

the sentence below makes sense?

00:08

According to John Lennon, the song "I Am the Walrus" came from several sources: The

00:13

blank drew inspiration from a police siren, a corn flake, and Lewis Carroll, among others.

00:20

And here are the potential answers...

00:25

Some of these choices are too nonsensical, even for a sentence about a song that... famously

00:29

doesn't make sense at all.

00:31

Take "mammal" for instance.

00:33

John Lennon was a mammal. Walruses are mammals.

00:37

But that's not exactly what we're going for here, so we can eliminate (E).

00:41

We can cross out (B), since "menagerie" is a fancy way of referring to a zoo.

00:47

We have to dig a little deeper to eliminate the remaining choices, since they're kind

00:50

of in the same ballpark.

00:52

The sentence makes a point of emphasizing the fact that Lennon could find inspiration

00:56

in basically anything.

00:57

So we're looking for a word that hints at the sheer randomness of the song.

01:02

"Culmination" describes a climactic point of something, so its connotations are just

01:06

too organized to fit here.

01:08

You could have a "collection" of random things, but it'd be weird to call a song

01:11

a collection.

01:12

"Pastiche" refers to a confusing mix of things, both in art and in life, so (D) is the best

01:18

answer to this question.

01:19

D for "Don't worry, not even Lennon knew what "Coo coo ca choo" meant."

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