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ACT Reading 1.1 Natural Science Passage 256 Views


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ACT Reading: Natural Science Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by NASA. Via land rover, of course.

01:07

Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of this passage?

01:17

The most important word in this question is "overall." Don't tell it we said that, though. It already

01:22

has a big enough ego as it is.

01:24

The key thing here is not to zoom in on any of the specific details; instead, we need

01:29

to zoom out to get the full picture the passage is trying to paint.

01:34

We'll start by taking a look at choice (B).

01:37

This information about Mars in popular culture is covered in the first paragraph, but doesn't

01:43

pop up in the rest of the passage.

01:45

We can cross this one out for being too specific... and for also failing to mention the first

01:50

Total Recall movie.

01:51

Arnold would not be pleased.

01:53

Answer (C) doesn't quite make the cut either.

01:56

Though the passage does mention some nifty facts about Mars, overall it doesn't go

02:01

into a whole lot of detail about the planet itself.

02:05

(D) also doesn't work.

02:07

Several NASA missions to Mars are mentioned, but a whole lot more goes into them than the passage tells us.

02:13

Choice (A) gets it just right.

02:17

The passage's overall purpose is to introduce the missions to Mars and to provide some information

02:21

about the planet.

02:22

Although Total Recall has always been our go-to resource for all things Mars-related...?

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