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ACT English 1.10 Passage Drill 208 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill 1, Problem 10. How would you correct the underlined segment from the passage?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the nonessential clause...which is having

00:08

trouble getting over its inferiority complex.

00:11

Check out the following passage...

00:25

How would you correct the below underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

00:28

The outermost layer, that is typically smooth with a greenish color, is called the exocarp.

00:34

And here are the potential answers:

00:39

Huh... we never imagined we'd know so many details about the secret lives of coconuts...

00:44

Anyway, let's see what we can do to help this sentence get on track...

00:46

Choice (B) probably gets the award for the worst possible choice.

00:49

Even if we don't know anything about... anything, it just sounds bad when we read

00:53

it out loud: "The outermost layer, it is typically smooth with a greenish color, is

00:58

called the exocarp."

00:59

Sounds awkward, right? This is because there's no need to put in the pronoun "it" to

01:03

stand for the noun "layer."

01:05

Placing "it" in this position mutates the sentence into some kind of mangled run-on.

01:09

We're actually in need of another type of pronoun entirely.

01:12

(D) is closer...it attempts to use the word "what" as a relative pronoun.

01:17

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses, which are a type of clause that modify a word,

01:21

phrase, or idea in the main clause.

01:23

For example, the relative clause here is obsessed with telling us how smooth and green the outermost

01:29

layer of the coconut is.

01:30

Even though we are indeed on the hunt for a relative pronoun, we can't give "what"

01:34

the OK, since it's rarely used that way.

01:36

Choice (A) isn't too far off the mark. "That" can indeed be employed as a relative pronoun.

01:41

However, when "that" is used to introduce a relative clause, it signals that the clause

01:45

is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

01:47

Let's read the sentence without the relative clause and see if we lose anything essential:

01:51

"The outermost layer is called the exocarp."

01:53

Not so much. Sure, we lose some detail about what the exocarp looks like, but that's

01:57

not the main point of this sentence. Those kinds of details are only icing on the cake.

02:02

Another big hint that this relative clause is nonessential is that commas surround it.

02:06

When something is surrounded by commas in a sentence, it's usually an indication that

02:09

it's nonessential.

02:10

Therefore, we should never put commas before "that" when it's acting as a relative pronoun.

02:15

At long last, we've landed on the right answer: choice (C).

02:18

"Which" is the relative pronoun we need because it's used to introduce nonessential

02:23

clauses, which makes it A-OK. with being separated from a sentence by commas.

02:28

Random fact: Non-essential Clauses perform small jobs, such as polishing toy trains,

02:32

in the days leading up to Christmas.

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