ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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

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Delivering you catalogues, bills, and false hope.

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Seriously. Why is there never anything good? [Mail box in front of the house]

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All right, first, read the following sentence.

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Maria's job at the bank consists of sending notices to

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holders of delinquent accounts.

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[ mumbles ]

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"Delinquent" most nearly means, uh, what?

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And here are your potential answers. [sound of a cow mooing ]

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Huh.

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Ah, clerical work.

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It's a thrilling word of fast cars, beautiful women, and exotic

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moon adventures.

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That or stamping envelopes. [someone stamping an envelop]

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Hundreds and hundreds of envelopes.

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Maria's job is particularly exciting because she gets to send notices

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to delinquent account holders. [Maria complaining about the amount of paper on her desk]

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So what does "delinquent" mean?

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Well, consider the people who get mailed notices.

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Would they be B - influential people?

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Well, influential means you hold power and respect. [Man on giant chess board wearing crown]

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Banks just send those guys extra credit cards.

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What about C? Dedicated means devoted,

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and, usually, banks give their devoted customers things like [a man standing near a window with his arms folded]

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free sandwiches or rewards points or not-scary formal notifications.

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And lucrative means generating a profit.

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If you're making a profit for the bank, they probably just

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wanna keep you doing what you're doing. Thank you very much.

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And that's Mr. Mooney and Jed Clampett. Yeah, right there. [Three men with a banker lady]

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That leaves us with answer A.

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Delinquent is a term used to describe things that are late or behind schedule.

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People with late accounts are the kind that

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usually get those angry red envelopes in the mail. [Maria stamping envelops angrily]

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So A - overdue is the best definition.

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Now go check your mail. Maybe today's the day you get an actual letter. [Man checking mailbox]

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Eh, who are we kidding. They don't exist anymore.

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