ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by FEMA.

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Otherwise known as the "thighbone."

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Which of the following best describes the overall purpose of the passage?

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For this one we need to keep our eye on the big picture.

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We have to take into account all the details the passage throws at us and figure out what

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it all amounts to.

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We'll start with choice (B).

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The passage doesn't tell us whether or not the CDC is good at its job, so (B) a definite no.

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For the record, we really hope that something called the Center for Disease Control is good at its job.

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Chances are, they're the only thing standing between us and the Zombie Apocalypse.

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(D) tries to put all the blame on FEMA.

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It's tempting, because a lot of people heaped a ton of blame on FEMA for mismanaging the

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human crisis after hurricane Katrina.

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This passage, however, doesn't go into all that, so we can say no to choice (D).

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(A) is probably the most tempting one yet.

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The author of the passage does seem to be deeply concerned with how the federal government

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is handling environmental and health concerns.

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Answer (C), however, claims that the passage is targeting the ATSDR specifically.

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This is the correct answer, because the author spends almost the entire passage breaking

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down just how the ATSDR really messed things up.

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We're guessing it wasn't a fun day at ATSDR headquarters when this report came out...

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