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This reading lesson is about Line ReferenceQuestions. Now, you may think these are questions on the test that seem pretty self explanatory. You just go to a line and read what it says and find the answer. But I want to make sure that you are aware of something very, very important. And that is, the answer is not always in the line being referenced.

And for that reason, you always wanna make sure you read one sentence above the line referenced and two sentences below the line referenced. And you might need to read a little bit more around depending on the question. But make sure at minimum, you do that. One sentence above, two sentences below. This helps you A, put that particular line reference in context, but also B, make sure you're not missing any essential information that's going to help you answer the problem.

So let's take a look at an example of this. In the context of the passage as a whole, it can be assumed that the author chooses to mention the specific detail of Marie Antoinette's soft, velvety, lavender blue two-pieced dress in the first paragraph in order to. Okay, so this example is from our example passage video. You can also find it below, so you can check out the whole passage.

But I will show you the relevant portion in just a moment. So we are looking for why the author chose to mention this specific detail of Marie Antoinette's dress in the first paragraph. So this is our reference to the line. So let's take a look. This is in the last sentence right here.

Dressed in a soft, velvety and lavender blue two-pieced dress, she then meets with her mother before being sent off to France. Now if I just read that sentence and tried to answer this question, why does the author do that? I don't know, I don't know why she mentioned that. That sentence doesn't tell me.

So let's read one sentence before and a couple sentences after. All right, so one sentence before, which starts right here. While she waits for them to lace the corset and finish her hair, she appears unconcerned and plays with her little pug. Dressed in a soft, velvety and lavender blue two-pieced dress, she then meets with her mother, before being sent off to France.

The theme of dressing and redressing which is accentuated in the opening scene, is pursued throughout the film, Marie Antoinette, establishing costume as a significant feature for reading the movies. Costumes help in the construction of cinematic identities. Now, this is more helpful, even though it's in the next paragraph. This is really helpful thematic information, it's talking about the theme.

It's more general. This was a specific example, and then we have a general explanation that really puts that example in context. That costume is a significant feature for reading a movie. Costume is established as a significant feature for reading a movie. It helps in the construction of cinematic identities.

So now, if I was going to write my own answer here, I would say that this two-pieced dress that the author chose to mention it because it's helping to construct Marie-Antoinette, we'll call her M.A. for short, construct M.A.'s current identity. Because that is what those next sentences tell us. Now let's go back to the question.

Here's our example. Why did the author choose to mention the specific detail of Marie Antoinette's dress? A, emphasize the formality of the occasion of Marie Antoinette's traveling to France. Well it is a formal occasion, I guess. She's gonna be queen but it's not really in the passage, that's not discussed and remember we want to stick very close to the text.

B, imply that this costume choice reflects Marie Antoinette's current state in life. That sounds a lot like what I wrote in, constructing her current identity, in my terrible handwriting. So, that sounds pretty good to me. C, foreshadow Marie Antoinette's icy, light-colored dresses mentioned in Paragraph 4.

Now, this reaches a little bit farther beyond those two sentences, which means you'd have to check it out if you think it might be a viable answer choice. But there is no real connection there as you can see from the whole passage below this video, so we can eliminate that one as well. And D, indicate the differences Marie Antoinette will encounter in climate between Austria and France.

That wasn't talking about climate. Because we read the two sentences that came after a line reference, we can be pretty confident in picking B. But if we hadn't done that, we probably have no idea. And so that's why it's really important on line reference questions that you read both above and below to get the context you need to answer the question.

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