ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by bloodshed.

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It's the creepy one right next to the woodshed. [ scream ]

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All right, check out the following passage.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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You done? All right.

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The subject of the passage can best be described as... what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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Okay, well, here we go. So, what's this question asking?

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Well, it wants to know about the subject of the entire passage.

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Not one paragraph, not one line, the whole kit and caboodle.

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Not really any shortcuts here. We kind of have to

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read the whole thing from start to finish

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and hopefully form some sense of what it's all about.

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Let's start with A.

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Is it about the precariousness of civil war?

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Well, there's no doubt war can be described as precarious,

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but it's pretty broad. This passage is referring specifically

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to one king and one war

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and doesn't seem to be making a commentary about war in general,

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which would nix option B, too.

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So it's gone. All right, what about C -

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a revolt of secular followers against religious governments?

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Huh. We didn't even get into the religion thing until

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later in the passage, so it has to be more than that.

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E - the origins of a historical lapse in diplomacy?

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Well, it might be.

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But the passage doesn't really place this event in

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a historical perspective, so we can't be sure.

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D is the best answer.

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The difficulties facing the king at the start of the civil war.

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Yeah, everything in the passage relates to that one:

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botched negotiations, lazy and incompetent underlings,

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a reputation as a dupe.

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When you think about it,

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it's kind of incredible the guy never ran for U.S. Congress.

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[ applause ]

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