ShmoopTube

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It’s time for your daily dose of shmoop… We heard you were a sucker for passages…

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so we got you this one. Pause and review, pretty please…

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Which of the following BEST restates the main idea of the passage?

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And here are the potential answers…

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Okay, we’re looking for the main idea of this one.

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It would be helpful if there was a big, bold heading somewhere that said “MAIN IDEA”

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followed by a series of bullets…

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…but sadly, literary analysis is rarely so clean and pretty.

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We’re gonna have to go digging… and we’ll probably get our hands dirty.

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Our first option is “Friendship is elusive but sweet if obtained.”

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Sweet, sure… but elusive? Not according to Bacon.

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B and C are going to get the boot, because nowhere does Bacon say that solitude is either

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“necessary” or “desirable.”

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Something tells us this guy didn’t spend a lot of time playing solitaire.

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But D looks good – “Friendship is undervalued and constitutes one of the best aspects of life.”

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This one certainly seems to hold some water… Bacon spends a lot of time extolling the virtues

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of… hanging with one’s homies.

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Check out line 14, when he says “it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends”…

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…or on line 9 when he says “little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth.”

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In other words… he’s been there and had to deal with a lack of friendship, and…

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well… it sucketh. We can rule out E as well, because the “contemplative

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benefits” really just refer to holy men, not your average Joe.

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D is the correct answer.

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But we’re only telling you that so you’ll be our friend.

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