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Apposition

Transcript

Okay, in this video, we're gonna be dealing with a sentence where there definitely isn't a shift, and there's a similarity that it's important to note. This is called an apposition, where you have two words that are next to each other. In this case, we have pointed, even blank. And so when you're dealing with these two words that are next to each other, they usually tend to be adjectives.

Again, they follow one another, it's called abscission, and of course, you don't have to know that. But what you do know is that the second word here, the blank itself, is gonna be similar to pointed. But it's also gonna be more extreme cuz of that word even. Sometimes that word will be there, other times it won't be there.

And in that case, pointed, this word would probably be more of a synonym. But now even, we're looking for a more extreme word, so let's read this sentence. As she enumerated the current administrations shortcomings, her editorial became pointed, even blank, as it skewered the government for its many ineptitudes. This sentence is a little bit harder than the other one.

Part of the reason why is the words. Enumerated, enumerated means to list out one by one. Again, you don't really have to know this to get this sentence right, cuz all you really need to know is this word here, pointed. And if a criticism is pointed, it's definitely exact. And it's marked by the person's speaking in such a way where they want the other person to know that, hey, you're being criticized.

My criticism is pointed, but we wanna take it even further. And that's why we need a word that's even more than just overtly critical. We want something like, okay, I am upset with you, government, full of your ineptitudes and shortcomings. And again, if someone's inept, or ineptitudes, they're no good at what they do.

So what's that word that's a more extreme version of pointed? Well, let's look at muted, muted, again, of course we wanna make sure here that the words are similar and related. Muted is the opposite, you are quiet in your criticism. Charitable, you're kind, that's definitely the opposite of what's going on as well. Abstract, you're vague, polemical, mystery word.

Uncertain, well, if she was pointed, she was pretty certain about how she was criticizing. So we need an even more extreme word, that's not gonna work. And again, you see that word you don't know is the answer. A polemic is an impassioned, argumentative attack on something, usually. And this case, polemical is the adjective form of polemic or polemics, which would be a noun.

And here, the controversy, of course is the government and its ineptitudes. And this person is speaking out in a harsh way against the government, and that word is polemical, and that's how the sentence functions. So the good news is, if you know this word, you know the opposition, the even, some sort of extreme, you don't have to know all these other words. You really don't even have to know what the sentence is saying, you could still get the answer.

So that can definitely be helpful on some of these text completions.

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