ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by quiet Western towns,

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where the people are friendly and the tumbleweeds are real.

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And bigger than you'd think.

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All right, check out the following passage.

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We're skimming, we're skimming...

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We're mumbling and we're reading...

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Words, words, words and skim, skim...

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Hmm. All right.

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The word "prevailing" most nearly means... what?

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[ mumbles ]

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Huh.

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With a pleasant name like Lakeside, who wouldn't wanna live there?

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Other than the Wicked Witch, of course.

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So what do we know about Lakeside?

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For one, there's no rank there.

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Nerds and jocks coexist happily together.

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It's like socialism... sorta.

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And everybody knew everybody and his dog.

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So how could we describe this town's sociable friendliness?

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Well, friendliness certainly wasn't rare.

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With all that interclass and interspecies camaraderie,

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well, we'd have to be living in a cave if we couldn't find the friendly.

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And "desired" doesn't make sense either.

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Why desire something when we've already got so much of it?

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That kinda thinking leads to, uh, tummy aches.

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And "ancient" just doesn't fit.

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Why would this pleasant Western town have an ancient atmosphere of friendliness?

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It's not a Druid cult.

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Instead, it's clear that anywhere one turned in Lakeside,

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one could find a friendly smile,

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making option C - widespread

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the best answer.

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Almost as widespread as those tumbleweeds. [ chuckles ]

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Seriously, they're everywhere. And huge.

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[ evil cackle ]

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