ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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

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nationally-beloved figureheads

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who eat cake and get their pictures taken. Yeah.

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All right, check out the following sentence.

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The prince's untimely death was lamented throughout the country.

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All right, the word "lamented" most nearly means what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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We can't say too much about timely deaths,

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but the untimely death of royalty is, well, usually a sad affair.

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Remember Princess Di?

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Now, deaths aren't typically celebrated,

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so we can get rid of option B right off the bat.

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And it's not clear how an untimely death

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would cause C - fear throughout the country.

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Unless somehow untimely deaths were catching on or there was, like,

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ebola breaking out or something like that.

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And answer D makes even less sense. What kind of

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prince is so private that his death would go unnoticed?

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That would have to be some pretty timid royalty.

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The much more likely scenario is that people would be sad.

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A lament,

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like in poetry or in music,

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is a mournful expression of sorrow.

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The death of a well-loved person would probably be met with grief.

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So A is the correct answer.

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We're lamenting the fact that we're done with this question.

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Good thing there are a bunch more. [ chuckles ] Really.

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You got plenty more on your plate coming your way, baby.

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[ musical tone ]

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