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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?
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...
Full Transcript
- 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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AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?
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