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ACT English 1.3 Passage Drill 245 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 3. Keeping an eye out for wordiness.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by average people.

00:08

Because the above average people are busy doing more important things.

00:25

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

00:29

for a person who is average?

00:34

The question asks us to keep an eye out for wordiness.

00:36

Sentences that make use of too many words in order to relate the meaning that they would

00:40

like to convey to their intended audience can sometimes be hard to follow and annoying

00:44

to listen to for the audience for which they are intended because...

00:48

OK, we'll stop.

00:51

Choices (A) and (D) are first on the chopping block, since both are guilty of wordiness.

00:55

"For a person who is average" and "when a person is average" both use too many words

01:00

to get across a relatively simple idea.

01:03

Remember, whenever possible, simpler is better.

01:05

Choices (B) and (C) both keep it simple by using "average person."

01:10

Though they may agree on this, they disagree on the use of the words "for" and "to."

01:16

(B) claims that "to the average person" is correct, while (C) says "for the average person" is the way to go.

01:23

It can sometimes be difficult to determine whether "for" or "to" is right in a sentence.

01:27

We think of it like this: The passage is stating that plant classification is a difficult subject

01:32

for the average person to understand.

01:35

If it's rephrased in that way, "for" is the only word that fits. Therefore, we know that

01:39

(C) is the correct answer.

01:40

By the way, we chose a guy at random on the street, and he couldn't classify plants at

01:44

all. So, in our experience, this totally holds true.

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