ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
AP English Language and Composition Videos 152 videos
Which answer best describes the theme of the following passage? And if you say "fission chips," we'll give you half credit. The AP test graders mig...
AP English Language and Composition 3.5 Passage Drill. How is "forcible" being used here?
Take a look at this shmoopy question and see if you can figure out which device the speaker employs the most.
AP English Language and Composition 6.4 Passage Drill 221 Views
Share It!
Description:
AP English Language and Composition 6.4 Passage Drill. The author closely associates "dictation" with what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by spirit ditties.
- 00:07
Just wait and see. You'll have so much more time
- 00:09
to dance, play, and sing after you're dead.
- 00:11
Okay, read it.
Full Transcript
- 00:13
Weep.
- 00:16
And here we go. Lines 21 through 24 imply that...
- 00:20
what?
- 00:21
And here are the potential answers.
- 00:23
All right. Pause waiver thingy. Yeah, you gotta read it.
- 00:26
We gotta give it.
- 00:27
Once again, we're being asked to zero in on a few particular lines
- 00:31
and try to decipher their meaning.
- 00:32
We'll have to get deep inside the writer's head.
- 00:34
[ noo ]
- 00:35
Okay, here are the lines in question. Ready?
- 00:38
"Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
- 00:40
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
- 00:44
And, happy melodist, unwearied
- 00:47
For ever piping songs for ever new..."
- 00:50
All right. So we start out talking about tree boughs that
- 00:53
never shed leaves.
- 00:55
Uh... Somewhere where it's always spring.
- 00:57
Well, how about South Florida?
- 00:59
Oh, wait. Actually, because we're studying scenery on the side
- 01:02
of an urn, that would make sense.
- 01:05
The trees painted onto it would never lose their leaves
- 01:07
and the season would never change.
- 01:09
Does that work with the last two lines?
- 01:12
"...happy melodist, unwearied"?
- 01:14
Huh. Okay, so this melodist guy never gets tired,
- 01:17
and is forever playing songs on his pipe.
- 01:20
Either he is really hard up for the cash and can't afford
- 01:22
to take breaks, or, yeah, he's also frozen in time
- 01:26
on the urn.
- 01:27
So it seems these lines are all about how nice and happy and beautiful it is
- 01:31
that these pleasant scenes are forever preserved on the urn.
- 01:34
We never have to see the tree lose its leaves
- 01:36
or the melodist, you know, take five.
- 01:40
Looking over our answer choices, C looks like a pretty clear winner here.
- 01:43
The speaker envies the stillness of time in the urn.
- 01:47
So, boom, we're done.
- 01:49
Play us out, melodist.
- 01:50
[ upbeat music ]
Related Videos
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?
AP English Literature and Composition 1.1 Passage Drill 7. The primary purpose of this passage is what?
Wishing upon a star may help you pass your AP English Language and Composition test, but answering this question would be a safer bet.
Take a look at this shmoopy question and see if you can figure out which device the speaker employs the most.
Feel like shifting gears and answering a question about shifting tones? We've got you covered. Take a look at this question and see if you can foll...