ShmoopTube

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But soft! What Shmoop through yonder window breaks?

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Here's that lovely little passage again.

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Pause and review if the first time wasn't enough for you...

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In line 6, the word "dabbling" implies that Muir...what?

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And here are the potential answers...

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Although this question tries to disguise itself

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as a run-of-the-mill vocabulary issue, we won't fall for its wily tricks.

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In its most straightforward form, "dabbling" means to participate casually in an activity.

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Here, though, we need to use this definition to propel ourselves toward bigger and better

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meanings.

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It's true that many people who dabble in a lot of different things never manage to

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do anything big...

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But the article makes it mega-clear that this isn't true of the mighty John Muir, who

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accomplished all kinds of awesome things in his lifetime.

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(C) gets it right... in that it recognizes the fact Muir dabbled in tons of different

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things...

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...but gets it totally wrong by saying he was a flop.

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No doubt about it: this guy was a giant.

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Choice (D) gets it all wrong as well.

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Though Muir was a major dabbler, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about him if he wasn't

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an expert specialist when it came to all things nature.

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Sorry (D), you just don't know the guy like we do.

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(E) makes it sound like John Muir was some kind of loser.

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There's absolutely nothing in the article that talks about Muir not being respected.

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In fact, it goes on and on about just how respected he was. (E) is a definite no.

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This leaves only choice (A) on the table, telling us that the use of "dabble" in line

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6 refers to Muir's decision to explore his many different passions...

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which he managed to do pretty awesomely.

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OK, we'll admit it. We've got a Muir-crush.

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