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AP English Language and Composition 1.1 Reference Skills 237 Views


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AP® English Language and Composition: Reference Skills Drill 1, Problem 1. The word "piecemeal" is best interpreted to mean what?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Good and Evil. But, let's be real here... mostly Evil.

00:30

In line 40, the word "piecemeal" is BEST

00:33

interpreted to mean... what? And here are the potential answers...

00:41

Hm... well, if we're not sure what piecemeal is... it certainly sounds delicious.

00:46

Although... the "piece" part of it makes it sound like it might not be that filling...

00:50

so we hope it tides us over until dinner... But yeah, let's assume we don't know what

00:54

the word means, and it's just... unnecessarily whetting our appetite.

00:58

Let's take a look at the line in question and see if we can figure out what the word means here.

01:02

In fact, let's read the few lines after it as well, to get some sense of context...

01:08

A truly scientific philosophy will be more humble, more piecemeal, more arduous, offering

01:12

less glitter of outward mirage to flatter fallacious hopes, but more indifferent to

01:18

fate, and more capable of accepting the world without the tyrannous imposition of our human

01:22

and temporary demands. All right, so... what are we talking about here?

01:27

The author is saying that a "truly scientific philosophy" will be humble... we should

01:31

know that one, it basically means meek or modest...

01:35

...piecemeal -- our mystery word...

01:37

...and arduous. The "ard" part sounds like "hard"... and indeed, that's roughly

01:42

what the word means. Something grueling and difficult. Like working our way through this question.

01:47

The author goes on to say that it will be

01:49

"capable of accepting the world without the tyrannous imposition of our human and

01:54

temporary demands."

01:55

In other words... we human beings want immediate gratification -- we want our answers and

02:00

we want them now.

02:02

But the "scientific philosophy" shouldn't have to put with us and our silly demands.

02:06

It should be able to move at its own pace...

02:08

...modestly, meekly, and in a grueling manner. Cobbling all this together... it seems that

02:13

piecemeal probably means that something gets done a "piece" at a time.

02:20

And if you eat your meal a piece at a time, you will eat... slowly... gradually...

02:25

Which is answer B.

02:27

D is a nice try, but "unhurried" makes it seem like a leisurely stroll in the park...

02:31

"Gradual" is much more on the nose.

02:34

And none of the others come close... so yeah, B's our guy.

02:37

And while it's nice to be careful and thorough, we don't recommend that you complete your

02:41

AP test piecemeal.

02:43

They frown on it when you leave midway through the test to grab a donut from 7-11.

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