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A plan for last summer
For three summers running, the city has promised cooler streets and delivered press releases instead.
The new heat action plan is, on paper, admirable. It would not be unfair to say that a plan announced in June, for a heatwave that began in April, is less a strategy than an apology written in advance. The question is whether anyone will still be reading it by next summer.
The writer argues that the city's belated heat action plan is a useless cover-up rather than a genuine strategy.
Their position
The writer believes the city's plan is completely useless because it arrives months after the heatwave started, functioning merely as a pre-emptive excuse rather than a solution, as shown by calling it "an apology written in advance" rather than a "strategy".
Responding to
The surrounding text states that the city has previously promised cooler streets and delivered only "press releases instead," and that the new plan was "announced in June, for a heatwave that began in April."
Tone
Sardonic and dismissive, driven by the dry understatement that it "would not be unfair to say" and the mocking redefinition of a policy as "an apology written in advance."
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
The speaker asks the person he is addressing to look at him as a representation of late autumn, moving into an image of skeletal winter trees compared to destroyed monastery ruins, conveying a sense of fading life and approaching death.
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
You can look at me and see a stage of life that corresponds to a specific season.
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
That season is late autumn, represented by a few yellow leaves clinging to branches, or almost none left at all.
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Those branches tremble in the cold air, just as an aging body shivers.
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
Those empty, freezing branches are compared to the roofless ruins of church choir lofts where sweet-singing birds recently performed.
On the Origin of Species
It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life.
Nature constantly and continuously tests every tiny bodily difference in living things, getting rid of unhelpful traits and accumulating helpful ones, to gradually make every creature better suited to its living and non-living environment.
natural selection
The mechanism where organisms with traits better suited to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more than those with less suited traits.
variation
A difference in physical or biological traits between individuals of the same species.
organic being
Any living organism, such as a plant or animal.
organic and inorganic conditions of life
The living parts of an environment (like predators and prey) and the non-living parts (like climate and soil).
Marbury v. Madison
So if a law be in opposition to the constitution: if both the law and the constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the constitution; or conformably to the constitution, disregarding the law: the court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty.
When an ordinary law and the constitution both apply to a court case but contradict each other, judges are forced to choose which rule wins.
Summary only. The full answer added background that isn't in the passage.
UPSC, CAT VARC, CLAT, GRE, GMAT, IELTS
Reading passages ask for the writer’s view and tone. Is “less a strategy than an apology written in advance” praise or mockery? ContextReader’s answer begins:
“The writer argues that the city's belated heat action plan is a useless cover-up rather than a genuine strategy.”
A paper outside your field. For “natural selection” in Darwin, The jargon gives the meaning that page uses:
“The mechanism where organisms with traits better suited to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more than those with less suited traits.”
Court judgments, contracts and policy papers. Asked about a passage from Marbury v. Madison, ContextReader answered, word for word:
“When an ordinary law and the constitution both apply to a court case but contradict each other, judges are forced to choose which rule wins.”
Politeness that hides criticism is easy to miss. “It would not be unfair to say” sounds gentle. ContextReader calls the tone:
“Sardonic and dismissive, driven by the dry understatement…”
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It tells you when a writer is being sarcastic, dry, or polite but angry.
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