(a) How short sets differ from discretes
Each short set gives you ONE passage and THREE questions — so unlike discretes (L48), reading time amortizes: construe once, harvest thrice. The exam's four short sets always include both your prepared texts (syllabus) and unprepared ones (sight), in both genres. Strategy consequence: on syllabus sets you should be FAST (you've read the passage a dozen times — bank the time); on sight sets, spend the banked time on careful construal. Today's gym is a full short-set block in exam order.
(b) 🎯 Set 1 — SIGHT PROSE (Pliny 1.9.1–3, to Minicius Fundanus):
Mirum est quam singulis diebus in urbe ratio aut constet aut constare videatur, pluribus iunctisque non constet. Nam si quem interroges 'Hodie quid egisti?', respondeat: 'Officio togae virilis interfui, sponsalia aut nuptias frequentavi, ille me ad signandum testamentum, ille in advocationem, ille in consilium rogavit.' Haec quo die feceris, necessaria, eadem, si cotidie fecisse te reputes, inania videntur.
1. quam … ratio aut constet aut constare videatur — the ratio (account/balance-sheet) of single days in Rome: (a) always balances (b) balances, or seems to — but fails over many days together (c) never balances (d) balances only in the country 2. si quem interroges … respondeat — the mood-pattern presents the dialogue as: (a) a report of an actual conversation (b) a generalized hypothetical: "should you ask anyone… he would reply" (c) a command (d) a past habit 3. ille me … ille … ille … — the triple ille conveys: (a) three named friends (b) the interchangeable parade of social claimants on a Roman's day (c) increasing affection (d) a legal proceeding with three judges
(c) 🎯 Set 2 — SIGHT POETRY (Aen. 10.501–505 — the narrator, as Turnus exults over Pallas's body and takes the baldric):
quo nunc Turnus ovat spolio gaudetque potitus. nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae et servare modum rebus sublata secundis! Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista diemque oderit.
4. quo … spolio … potitus — potitus governs spolio because potior takes: (a) the accusative (b) the genitive only (c) the ablative (d) the dative 5. nescia mens hominum fati … et servare modum — the mind of men is ignorant of fate AND unable: (a) to keep moderation when lifted by favorable circumstances (b) to serve its masters (c) to preserve memory (d) to fear the future 6. Turno tempus erit … cum optaverit emptum intactum Pallanta — the prophecy: a time will come when Turnus: (a) will buy Pallas's armor (b) will wish Pallas untouched — bought at a great price (c) will forget Pallas entirely (d) will return the spoils voluntarily
(d) 🎯 Set 3 — SYLLABUS PROSE (Pliny 7.27.7 — you know this one):
Venit Athenas philosophus Athenodorus, legit titulum auditoque pretio, quia suspecta vilitas, percunctatus omnia docetur ac nihilo minus, immo tanto magis conducit.
7. audito pretio is: (a) an ablative absolute: "the price having been heard" (b) a dative of purpose (c) an accusative of respect (d) a genitive of price 8. quia suspecta vilitas — Athenodorus's inference runs: (a) cheapness proves the house is worthless (b) the suspicious cheapness signals a hidden defect worth investigating (c) the price was suspiciously high (d) the advertisement was fraudulent 9. nihilo minus, immo tanto magis conducit — having learned everything, he rents: (a) nonetheless — no, all the MORE (b) for nothing less than the asking price (c) a larger house instead (d) reluctantly
(e) 🎯 Set 4 — SYLLABUS POETRY (Aen. 4.165–168 — you know this one too):
speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem deveniunt. prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno dant signum; fulsere ignes et conscius aether conubiis summoque ulularunt vertice Nymphae.
10. eandem modifies speluncam and emphasizes: (a) that the cave was unusually large (b) that BOTH arrived at the SAME cave — the engineered coincidence (c) that the cave was sacred to Juno (d) the cave's location on a summit 11. pronuba Iuno casts Juno in the role of: (a) a war goddess (b) the matron-of-honor presiding over a marriage (c) a vengeful fury (d) queen of the dead 12. conscius aether conubiis — the upper air is "conscius" TO the union, meaning: (a) hostile (b) witnessing/complicit — nature stands in for the missing human witnesses (c) ignorant (d) loudly opposed
(f) Answer key — with anatomy
1. (b) — the paradox is the letter's thesis: day by day the ledger balances (aut constet aut constare videatur — even "seems to" is conceded); summed (pluribus iunctisque), it doesn't. (d) imports the letter's later content into the wrong clause. 2. (b) — interroges … respondeat: present subjunctives of the generalized second person and ideal respondent (L14's Audires family). No conversation happened; ALL conversations happen this way. 3. (b) — anaphoric ille without names = the anonymous, interchangeable claimants of urban officia. Three (a)-pickers read names that aren't there — the absence IS the answer. 4. (c) — potior + ablative (one of the famous five: utor, fruor, fungor, potior, vescor — L7 taught you fruor and fungor; the exam rotates the family). 5. (a) — two coordinated failures: ignorant of fate AND (ignorant of how) servare modum — to keep measure — rebus sublata secundis, "uplifted by favorable things." The narrator's verdict on trophy-taking, two books before it detonates (L44). 6. (b) — emptum intactum Pallanta: he will wish Pallas "bought untouched" at a great (price) — i.e., wish he could pay anything to have never touched him. The future perfect optaverit inside cum-temporal. This is the poem ANNOUNCING the baldric-mechanism of 12.940ff. — sight passage and syllabus interlocking exactly as the real exam loves. 7. (a) — abl. abs.; and note the chain legit … audito … percunctatus … docetur … conducit: five steps of due diligence in one sentence (L16). 8. (b) — suspecta vilitas as market-signal inference: discount = compensation for a defect; to a ghost-hunting philosopher, the defect is the value. 9. (a) — nihilo minus (no less) corrected upward by immo tanto magis (rather, by so much MORE): the self-revising emphasis is the joke and the characterization. 10. (b) — eandem — the SAME cave: Juno's plan (4.124, devenient) executing on schedule; the adjective is the click of the trap. 11. (b) — pronuba: the matron who escorts the bride — Juno's official marriage-portfolio deployed to stage an unratifiable union (L34). 12. (b) — conscius + dative: "in on it" — witness and accomplice; the sky signs a wedding contract no human authority drafted. (a)/(d) impose moral content the adjective's legal flavor doesn't carry.
Scoring: 11–12: short sets are banked points · 8–10: your misses are almost certainly on the SIGHT sets — reread (b)/(c) anatomy · <8: if syllabus-set questions missed, that's a review flag: rerun L16 and L34's passages this week.
⭐ Exam strategy: notice what Set 2 did — a SIGHT passage that converses with your SYLLABUS (the baldric prophecy you'll meet again at 12.940). The exam does this deliberately: sight selections often orbit the required texts. So on every sight passage, ask one extra question: "does this connect to something I prepared?" When the answer is yes, you get free context AND, often, a question rewarding exactly that recognition.