ACT English 4.6 Passage Drill

In order to do this, we have to have a firm idea of what each sentence is

trying to get across.

We’ll take a quick glance back at the passage to get it fixed in our heads.

OK, so this is easy. The first sentence informs us that a lot of people think Hagiwara created

fortune cookies, while the second sentence says that a bunch of other people think a

dude named Jung had the honor.

Looks like these two sentences are butting heads.

So we’re on the hunt for a word that helps to establish this contrasting relationship.

Option (A) suggests the word “anyway,” but this doesn’t get across the meaning we need.

“Anyway” is usually used when a writer wants to move on to a new topic,

not when a writer is contrasting two connected ideas.

Anyway, now it’s time to check out option (C).

See what we did there?

Yeah, yeah...we’re not as clever as we’d like to be.

(C) gives us the word “before.” This doesn’t work either, though. The sentence talks about

how people “still hold” to a certain idea.

If the sentence is trying to talk about how people are still doing something, then throwing

the word “before” in there does nothing but confuse the timeline.

(D) is incorrect because "although” is what’s known as a subordinating conjunction.

When this type of conjunction appears before a clause, it makes that clause subordinate to another.

Subordinate clauses can’t exist on their own and need a main clause to hang on to.

If we kick off the sentence in question with “although,” it turns the entire thing

into a subordinate clause with no main clause to hold hands with.

This prospect makes us sad, so we’ll nix option (D).

The correct answer is (B).

It’s totally OK to kick off a sentence with the word “however,”

and the word signals contrast, making it perfect for what the writer wants to communicate.

When we see “however” at the top of a sentence, we know that sentence is going to

disagree with the sentence that came before it.

When will these sentences learn to get along?