(a) Why this lesson exists
Two skills carry more exam weight than everything else combined: literal translation (FRQ Q2, 10%, scored in 15 segments) and summarizing Latin in English (skill 1.C — 25–35% of ALL points, spread across MC and FRQs). They look like opposites — translation wants every word, summary wants none of them — and students who are good at one are usually sloppy at the other because they don't switch modes deliberately. Today: the contract for each, and the switch.
(b) The Translation Contract (Q2's rules of evidence)
The College Board phrase is "translate as literally as possible." That's a contract with clauses:
- Every tense is a claim. Incidebat = "was falling," not "fell." Imperfect/perfect/pluperfect distinctions are scored segments.
- Every voice is a claim. Crederentur = "were believed" — flip it to active and the segment dies.
- Number, person, case relationships — "the cloud's shape" ≠ "the shaped cloud."
- Subjunctives keep their flavor — purpose reads as purpose ("so that…"), deliberative as deliberative ("whether he should…").
- You may smooth English word order freely — the contract covers content, not sequence.
- Unknown word? Translate the rest. Segments are scored independently; one crater doesn't sink the sentence. Never leave a blank — wrong guesses cost nothing beyond that segment.
The segment habit: before translating, slash the Latin into its scoreable chunks (roughly: one verb-unit or phrase-unit per segment). Then translate chunk by chunk, checking tense-voice-number per chunk. This is how readers grade — make your work land in their grid.
(c) Drilled: prose Q2 simulation (Ep. 6.20.12–13)
Passage (the escape, mother and son):
dein manum eius amplexus addere gradum cogo. Paret aegre incusatque se, quod me moretur. Iam cinis, adhuc tamen rarus. Respicio: densa caligo tergis imminebat, quae nos torrentis modo infusa terrae sequebatur. 'Deflectamus' inquam 'dum videmus, ne in via strati comitantium turba in tenebris obteramur.'
1. Slash it into segments (aim for ~12). Compare with the key's segmentation before translating. 2. Translate segment-by-segment, then audit your translation against contract clauses 1–4. Specifically check: amplexus (L3!), moretur (why subjunctive?), imminebat (tense), infusa (what does it agree with?), Deflectamus (mood?), obteramur (voice + the ne-door from L5).
3. Three segments are deliberately treacherous; explain the trap in each: (a) amplexus — what will weak translations say? (b) quod me moretur — subjunctive moretur after quod: whose reason is this? (c) torrentis modo — modo is not "only" here. What is it?
(d) Drilled: verse Q2 simulation (Aen. 1.88–92)
Eripiunt subito nubes caelumque diemque Teucrorum ex oculis; ponto nox incubat atra. Intonuere poli, et crebris micat ignibus aether, praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem. Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra.
4. Segment and translate. Audit points: eripiunt (tense — and why present?), intonuere (= what form?), ponto (case/function), praesentem … mortem (what's between them, and does it matter?), Aeneae (case — careful!), solvuntur (voice — and is "are loosened" or "go slack" more literal-faithful?). 5. caelumque diemque — the double -que. Contract clause: do you have to render both "and"s? What's the cleanest faithful solution?
(e) The mode switch: from translation to summary
Summary (skill 1.C) is the opposite contract: drop the grammar, keep the event-chain and the point. The exam asks it as "the passage states that…", "summarize the content of lines X–Y", and inside Q1 short answers. The discipline:
- One pass for events: who did what, in what order. One pass for the point: why is this being told?
- No Latin words, no grammar talk in a summary. "Pliny uses an ablative absolute" is never the answer to a 1.C question.
- Compression target: a 5-line passage → one sentence; a 15-line passage → two.
6. Summarize (c)'s passage in one sentence — then check: does your sentence contain the hand-grab, the self-blame, the pursuing cloud, AND the reasoning for leaving the road? If one is missing, your compression dropped load-bearing cargo. 7. Summarize (d)'s five lines in one sentence. The trap: Extemplo … membra changes the subject of the scene. Did your summary catch that the storm's climax is Aeneas's reaction, not the weather? 8. Mode-switch drill: write BOTH for ponto nox incubat atra — (i) the Q2 translation (every claim honored), (ii) the 1.C content (what is happening, three words).
(f) Answer key
1./2. Segmentation (one workable version; yours may differ at joints): | # | Latin | Literal translation | Watch | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | dein manum eius amplexus | then, having grasped her hand | amplexus deponent → ACTIVE | | 2 | addere gradum cogo | I force (her) to quicken (her) pace | historic present allowed as present | | 3 | Paret aegre | she obeys reluctantly | | | 4 | incusatque se | and blames herself | reflexive | | 5 | quod me moretur | because (as she said) she was delaying me | subjunctive = HER stated reason | | 6 | Iam cinis, adhuc tamen rarus | now (there was) ash, but still thin | supply "was" (L8 verbless) | | 7 | Respicio | I look back | | | 8 | densa caligo tergis imminebat | a dense fog was looming at our backs | imperfect — ongoing | | 9 | quae nos … sequebatur | which was following us | deponent, active sense | | 10 | torrentis modo infusa terrae | poured over the land like a torrent | modo + gen. = "in the manner of" | | 11 | 'Deflectamus' inquam 'dum videmus | "let us turn aside," I say, "while we (can) see | hortatory subjunctive | | 12 | ne in via strati … obteramur | lest, laid flat in the road, we be crushed in the darkness by the crowd of those accompanying | ne purpose; obteramur PASSIVE; strati participle | 3. (a) amplexus: weak versions write "having been embraced" — deponent, so active: he grasped her hand. (b) The subjunctive marks reported reason — the mother's own accusation, not the narrator's verdict: "because (so she said) she was delaying me." An indicative moratur would make Pliny endorse the blame; the subjunctive lets him report it while visibly not signing it. Grammar as kindness. (c) modo (ablative of modus) + genitive = "in the manner of a torrent" — the fog flows. Reading it as the adverb "only" produces nonsense; segment forfeited. 4. Model: "Suddenly the clouds snatch away sky and daylight from the Trojans' eyes; black night broods upon the sea. The heavens thundered, and the upper air flashes with thick-coming fires, and all things threaten the men with instant death. At once Aeneas's limbs go slack with cold." Audits: eripiunt — vivid (historic) present amid perfects: render present and keep the jolt; intonuere = intonuerunt (syncopated 3rd-pl. perfect — free MC point all year); ponto — dative/ablative with incubat, "broods upon the sea"; praesentem … mortem — hyperbaton brackets viris intentant omnia: the men are syntactically surrounded by present death (worth a style note, costs nothing in translation); Aeneae — genitive with membra ("Aeneas's limbs"), not dative — the limbs act, he doesn't; solvuntur — passive: "are loosened/go slack," and "go slack with cold" honors voice while sounding like English. Fear, in Homer's and Vergil's physiology, is a temperature. 5. -que … -que = "both … and" — epic doubling. "Both sky and day" is faithful; "sky and day alike" also honors it. Rendering only one -que loses a (tiny) claim; rendering "and and" loses the reader. Contract covers content: the pairing is the content. 6. Model: "Pliny seized his mother's hand and forced her on as she reluctantly obeyed, blaming herself for slowing him, and — with a torrent-like fog pursuing at their backs — he proposed leaving the road while they could still see, lest the crowd trample them in the dark." (Four cargo items: hand, self-blame, cloud, reasoning.) 7. Model: "A sudden storm blots out sky and daylight, thunder and lightning threaten the fleet with immediate death — and Aeneas, terrified, goes cold." The pivot to Aeneas is mandatory cargo: the passage exists to introduce the hero at his lowest, not to report weather. 8. (i) "black night broods upon the sea" (atra rendered, incubat singular present, ponto "upon the sea"). (ii) "darkness covers everything" — or even "total darkness." Same Latin, two contracts, both correct in their mode. The skill is knowing which contract you signed.
⭐ Exam strategy: on Q2, budget ~1 minute per segment with 2–3 minutes of audit at the end — and audit ONLY tense/voice/number, nothing else. Those three clauses are where readers' marks cluster, and they're checkable mechanically even with adrenaline. On 1.C questions, never mention grammar: name events and their point. Two contracts, two modes — sign the right one and the points follow.