Solved Examples Set 3 (Sentence Completion)

1. Students at Pennsylvania State University have ________ the Liberty Bell’s original tone, a ________ of four notes, E flat, F sharp, G sharp, and B flat.

   1. relegated . . . combination
   2. replicated . . . melding
   3. decanted . . . concurrence
   4. reproduced . . . disjunction
   5. intimated . . . knell

   (B. replicated . . . melding) The context suggests a word like reproduced or replicated. Given these two choices, only melding could describe the combining of the four notes.

2. Heavy snows in the passes of the Pyrenees have seriously ________ rescuers trying to reach travelers surprised by the spring blizzards.

   1. excluded
   2. expedited
   3. rappelled
   4. assisted
   5. hampered

   (E. hampered) The context indicates the missing verb should mean impeded, kept from moving freely. B, C, and D are clearly unsuitable. The use of the adjective seriously eliminates excluded as the answer.

3. The meager ruins of the castle, which once covered 6 acres of ground, can now be of interest only to ________.

   1. antiques
   2. antiquaries
   3. reliquaries
   4. patricians
   5. histrionics

   (B. antiquaries) The context calls for a word to describe someone who might be interested in ancient ruins. Of the five choices, the only one that fits this definition is antiquaries, which refers to an expert or student of things remaining from ancient times.

4. Pretending in his works to be gauche, uneducated, and ________, the real Chaucer was a sophisticated, widely read, and ________ man.

   1. provincial . . . cosmopolitan
   2. exiguous . . . vigorous
   3. avuncular . . . shrewd
   4. inept . . . dauntless
   5. incompetent . . . flaccid

   (A. provincial . . . cosmopolitan) The pattern the sentence sets up is a specific contrast between the terms in the two series. In the first series, provincial, inept, and incompetent would fit, but only A gives an opposite for the second blank: provincial versus cosmopolitan.

5. Briefly popular in the ’40s, the ’60s, and the ’80s, Brazilian music is now making one of its periodic ________ into the American ________.

   1. forays . . . consciousness
   2. escapes . . . miasma
   3. appearances . . . discourse
   4. eclipses . . . scene
   5. invasions . . . liturgy

   (A. forays . . . consciousness) Forays (a brief venture), appearances, and maybe even invasions would seem to fit the first blank, but discourse and liturgy make no sense in this context, so the second noun must be consciousness.

6. Unless the prevailing ________ attitude toward genetically altered food is changed, the biotech industry will have little ________ to pursue research and development.

   1. rampant . . . motive
   2. auspicious . . . occasion
   3. censorious . . . disinclination
   4. negative . . . incentive
   5. unassailed . . . reason

   (D. negative . . . incentive) The missing noun must mean something like motive or reason, so you can eliminate C. To make sense, the adjective in the right choice should be derogatory, so only D (negative) is possible.

7. One cannot ________ to be impressed by the structural and ________ differences between the United States as a federal union in 1789 and the United States as a federal union today.

   1. refuse . . . legal
   2. stop . . . attitudinal
   3. begin . . . economic
   4. fail . . . operational
   5. start . . . classical

   (D. fail . . . operational) The best choice is fail . . . operational. The signal here is cannot ________ to be impressed, which should be a negative word, but the second choice should be a complement to structural, which is operational.

8. Although they are now commercially ________, caper bushes are still found growing wild in many ________ Mediterranean areas.

   1. exported . . . fertile
   2. marketed . . . urban
   3. preempted . . . fluvial
   4. eluded . . . indigenous
   5. cultivated . . . remote

   (E. cultivated . . . remote) The first word here might be A, B, or E, but the grow wild detail seems to contrast with the first clause, suggesting that cultivated is the best of the three. Because remote also makes more sense in the context of the sentence, the best answer is E.

9. Comparing him to P.T. Barnum, Mencken called William Jennings Bryan a ________, a mountebank, a fake without shame or dignity.

   1. coward
   2. charlatan
   3. poltroon
   4. craven
   5. demigod

   (B. charlatan) The best choice will mean something like fake and mountebank. A craven, or a poltroon is a coward. A charlatan is a mountebank.

10. Though it lasted only half an hour, the ponderous lecture seemed ________ to most of the students.

    1. interminable
    2. cabalistic
    3. waggish
    4. vendible
    5. expressive

    (A. interminable) The clues of though it lasted only half an hour and ponderous point here only to interminable or endless.

11. Unfortunately, too many American actors in a Shakespeare play chop the verse into gobbets that are ________ to the audience and ________ to their own vocal chords.

    1. inscrutable . . . an expedience
    2. congenial . . . a danger
    3. galling . . . a panacea
    4. anodyne . . . an emollient
    5. incomprehensible . . . a threat

    (E. incomprehensible . . . a threat) The Unfortunately at the beginning tells us to look for words with negative denotations. Of the five choices, only E has both an adjective and a noun with meanings that are unfavorable.

12. Unlike most historians, an anthropologist may not share the conventional ________ that the written word is more ________ than a tale told by a campfire.

    1. belief . . . prolix
    2. assumption . . . authentic
    3. idea . . . incredible
    4. tenet . . . specious
    5. canon . . . interesting

    (B. assumption . . . authentic) You can assume that historians regard the written word as more certain than the fireside tale, so the second blank is probably authentic. That assumption fits well confirms the choice of B.

13. The eruption of the volcano in January was only ________ of the much larger event in March.

    1. an advent
    2. a ukase
    3. an elision
    4. a precursor
    5. a subtext

    (D. a precursor) The context calls for a noun that means predecessor, something that comes first. The best choice is precursor.

14. Despite his illness, Inzamam was ________ in winning his team.

    1. disappointing
    2. useless
    3. vigorous
    4. instrumental

    (D. instrumental) "Despite" is the key word. It leads you to predict the importance of Inzamam. Hence, the right answer choice is D.

15. Ozone in the Earth's atmosphere ________ living organisms from damaging ultraviolet radiation.

    1. protects
    2. warms
    3. reflects
    4. absorbs

    (A. protects) Ozone shields harmful ultaviolet radiation. Hence it protects living things on the earth.

16. A highly ________ player, the champion will snarl at himself and rage at the umpire with no ________ whatsoever.

    1. reticent . . . reason
    2. demonstrative . . . provocation
    3. recusant . . . excuse
    4. obstreperous . . . corroboration
    5. emotional . . . antagonism

    (B. demonstrative . . . provocation) Both B and D will fit the first blank (snarl, rage), but the word provocation (that which incites) is clearly better than corroboration (that which makes certain).

17. Virginia has adopted detailed new ________ for what students should know in English, history, mathematics, and science.

    1. maxims
    2. jurisdictions
    3. benchmarks
    4. affirmations
    5. vortices

    (C. benchmarks) A word that means standards is needed here. The best choice is benchmarks, which means “standards or references from which others can be measured.”

18. Some historians contend that the ________ Germany was forced to pay after World War I ________ made possible the rise of Nazism.

    1. restorations . . . indefinitely
    2. recriminations . . . finally
    3. expenditures . . . gratuitously
    4. reparations . . . ultimately
    5. disbursements . . . immediately

    (D. reparations . . . ultimately) The first noun must mean something like payments. Only reparations fits exactly, and ultimately makes more sense than the four other adverbs.

19. Loyalty tests are ________ in their consequences because they distract attention from truly disloyal activities, and they ________ the criticism that true loyalty inspires.

    1. salutary . . . intimidate
    2. cautionary . . . mute
    3. pernicious . . . silence
    4. unexceptional . . . abstract
    5. perilous . . . augment

    (C. pernicious . . . silence) The first missing word must be critical of loyalty tests, such as C or E. The second word must mean something like stifle, so only B and C are possible.

20. Fauzia presents herself as a bold journalist by asking people in politics the kinds of ________ questions that other reporters do not ask.

    1. controversial
    2. circumnutating
    3. abnormal
    4. irrelevant

    (A. controversial) The sentence says that Fauzia earned a reputation for herself as a journalist by asking the questions that other reporters avoided. Its mean she asks probing questions about "controversial" issues.

Solved Examples Set 1
Solved Examples Set 2
Solved Examples Set 3