ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by London. Turns out London Bridge was falling

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down, but it caught itself on a railing and was able to right itself. Crisis averted.

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What is the overall tone of the passage? And here are the potential answers...

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Here's another question where it's no use skimming the passage quickly for a key word.

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It wants to know about the overall tone... which means we have to read and understand

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the entire thing, plain and simple.

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There's three minutes of our life we'll never get back...

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So... what's the tone?

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Is it... judgmental and erratic?

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Or are we talking about your parents now?

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Nah... the tone is too formal, distant and straightforward to include any personal views.

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We can't exactly picture the speaker suddenly breaking a chair over his knee, or throwing

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a television off a fourth-story balcony. ...which means that B -- detached and analytical...

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is sounding awfully good.

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That's exactly what the speaker is doing -- taking HIMSELF out of the equation, and simply discussing

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the topic in an unbiased, evenhanded way. While we're on the subject of personal opinion...

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he isn't likely to be "pompous" or "reverent" either...

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...so we can scratch C and E.

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Last one on our list is D -- pedantic and esoteric.

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"Pedantic" means that something is a tad dull and... well, just plain boring.

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We suppose you could argue the first half...

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...but "esoteric" means mysterious or cryptic... and this passage doesn't really fit that description.

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So we're stickin' with B.

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Oh, and if you ever catch us being detached or analytical... or pedantic, for that matter...

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you have our permission to give us a good, hard smack.

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