ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the central vortex. The place vortexes go to mingle.

00:11

Check out the following passage...

00:20

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

00:24

consists for

00:25

And here are the potential answers...

00:30

These answer choices have a disagreement over which preposition is required.

00:33

Remember: it's a preposition's job to link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words

00:38

in a sentence, while establishing the relationship between the elements they link.

00:42

If a writer chooses the wrong preposition, major confusion can happen.

00:46

Option (A) serves up a good example of the messiness that the wrong preposition can cause.

00:51

When it tells us that "a mature waterspout consists for a low-pressure central vortex,"

00:56

it almost sounds like waterspouts are in love with these vortexes.

00:59

We can just imagine a waterspout telling a vortex, "I only live for you."

01:04

We have a strong feeling this isn't what the writer wants here, so we'll cut choice (A).

01:08

Choice (C) claims that these waterspouts consist "on" vortexes. This makes it sound like either

01:13

the waterspout is on top of the vortex, or maybe that waterspouts eat vortexes.

01:18

We're not sure, but that last one may be considered cannibalism.

01:20

Either way, choice (C) is wrong.

01:22

Option (D) tells us that waterspouts consist "in" vortexes, but this doesn't work. Something

01:27

can't be inside of thing it's made of.

01:29

Unless, it exists in some previously undiscovered alternate dimension where the laws of physics

01:34

don't apply.

01:35

We're not ruling out the existence of such a place, but we figure this is nowhere near

01:38

what the writer is trying to communicate.

01:40

This brings us to (B), the correct answer. The passage is talking about things that make

01:44

up a mature waterspout, so "consists of" is the only plausible option.

01:48

We know a waterspout is mature when it has its own job, some savings, and a firm plan for the future.

Full Transcript