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ACT English 5.9 Passage Drill 188 Views


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ACT English : Passage Drill 5, Problem 9. For the sake of logic and coherence in this paragraph, where should sentence 5 be placed?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by spider web weaving.

00:07

It turns knitting into the blood sport we always knew it could be.

00:11

Check out the following passage...

00:29

For the sake of the logic and coherence of this paragraph, Sentence 5 should be placed where?

00:34

And here are the potential answers...

00:39

Like a spider’s web, good writing follows logical patterns.

00:43

If it’s great writing, it ensnares us like a spider’s web too.

00:47

Though hopefully the writer’s end goal isn’t to wrap readers in silk and drink their blood.

00:52

As is, the paragraph has some issues with its flow of logic.

00:56

Without our help, this writer isn’t going to be ensnaring readers any time soon.

01:01

We can eliminate choice (A) because Sentence 5 is currently misplaced.

01:05

The paragraph as a whole takes us through the methodical web-building process of orb-weaving

01:10

spiders from start to finish.

01:13

Sentence 5, however, starts out like this...

01:15

“An orb-weaver begins its web...”

01:18

The word “begins” is key here. Since Sentence 5 is telling us how orb-weavers begin their

01:23

process, there’s a very good chance that it ought to be closer to the beginning.

01:27

Currently, this paragraph is a very messy web.

01:30

Option (D) doesn’t help matters.

01:33

Sentence 3 details a step in the middle of the web-weaving process.

01:36

So placing a sentence that describes the early process directly after 3 muddles the chain of events.

01:45

We don’t have a lot of personal experience with web weaving, but we figure any time one

01:48

puts the first step after the third trouble is bound to ensue.

01:53

Choice (B) is promising because it does place Sentence 5 close to the beginning--

01:56

all the way at the top of the paragraph in fact.

01:59

This doesn’t work either, though, because the paragraph begins with this sentence...

02:03

“We will focus on orb-weavers because their webs are the most recognizable.”

02:08

This sentence gives us a great introduction for the paragraph....

02:11

And sets us up to hear about the orb-weaving process.

02:14

We can’t begin the description of the process until we know we’re about to hear it.

02:18

Choice (C) is the correct answer.

02:20

Sentence 5 is now placed snuggly after the intro and flows gracefully into Sentence 2.

02:25

With this adjustment, the paragraph is now ready to ensnare eager readers.

02:29

We’d proceed with caution if we were you.

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