What is a Gist Statement? The essential message of a text using fewer than 20 words
The main idea in an article using at least two paragraphs
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The paraphrase of a poem using one stanza
The outline of directions using a KPL

Brendan is playing in the backyard.

When i was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, i'd listen toward the hall: daddy upstairs was shaving, in the bathroom, and mother downstairs was frying the bacon. they would begin whispering back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. my father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers backi drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it -know it was "the merry widow." the difference was, their song almost floated with laughter. how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the victrola were only slowly being wound up. they kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where i was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes. what is the effect of the parallelism used in the above excerpt? it establishes the rhythm of a duet to echo the song. it expresses the same ideas. it mirrors opposite ideas. it is a paradox.

"alice wondered a little at this,but she was too much in awe of the queen to disbelieve it".what is the effect of the author's word choice in this sentence?