Question 1
Question
Directions: for each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text.
Rich found the chance shift in the path of the storm _________(i), as he was hoping to use the excuse of heavy weather to ___________ (ii) more much needed time. With the deadline ___________(iii) and his credibility on the line, he will have time to find a way to get the presentation done.
Answer
-
blank (i)
hilarious
-
blank (i)
disappointing
-
blank (i)
successful
-
blank (ii)
deplete
-
blank (ii)
garner
-
blank (ii)
refuse
-
blank (iii)
deferred
-
blank (iii)
nigh
-
blank (iii)
audacious
Question 2
Question
The defense attorney’s _________ closing statement was not enough to sway the jurors in his client’s favor: stirring words could not conceal the defendant’s evident guilt.
Answer
-
deceptive
-
eloquent
-
lengthy
-
crafty
-
impromptu
Question 3
Question
A recent Harris Poll indicated that many professions have seen a decline in their _________(i) over the past several years; teaching, in contrast, has ___________(ii) more respect over the same time period.
Answer
-
blank (i)
ranks
-
blank (i)
prestige
-
blank (i)
fortunes
-
blank (ii)
reflected
-
blank (ii)
squandered
-
blank (ii)
reaped
Question 4
Question
In 1770s colonial New England, Puritans __________ the celebration of Christmas, which they considered to be an odious reminder of the Pope’s tyranny.
Answer
-
placated
-
extolled
-
circumscribed
-
tempered
-
repudiated
Question 5
Question
The _____________(i) lining of an eggshell is ___________ (ii), and this is the reason using salt water to boil an egg can make the egg taste salty. For the same reason, it is important not to store eggs in the refrigerator with uncovered, strong-smelling food items since the scents can ___________(iii) the egg, causing it to taste bad.
Answer
-
blank (i)
yolk
-
blank (i)
membrane
-
blank (i)
albumen
-
blank (ii)
impermeable
-
blank (ii)
flexible
-
blank (ii)
porous
-
blank (iii)
permeate
-
blank (iii)
addle
-
blank (iii)
infect
Question 6
Question
Many dog owners treat their pets too ____________, forgetting that canines have evolved in competitive environments in which emotional coddling was a sign of weakness.
Answer
-
aggressively
-
quixotically
-
fortuitously
-
indulgently
-
belligerently
Question 7
Question
As part of Marina Abramovics groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the artist herself logged 700 hours over the course of 3 months in a small chair. Visitors were invited to sit across from the performance artist’s stolid countenance, for whatever ____________ (i) they desired, the ___________(ii) sitting for only few moments and the bold sitting for several hours; the visitors thus became ___________(iii) components of the piece, wittingly or unwittingly.
Answer
-
blank (i)
motive
-
blank (i)
tenure
-
blank (i)
approbation
-
blank (ii)
irresolute
-
blank (ii)
boorish
-
blank (ii)
genial
-
blank (iii)
integral
-
blank (iii)
culpable
-
blank (iii)
nascent
Question 8
Question
Repulsed by ___________ employees, the executive informed his staff that he preferred constructive criticism to calculated flattery.
Answer
-
natty
-
profligate
-
rapacious
-
sententious
-
obsequious
Question 9
Question
Students may consider modernist works such as James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake to be more ___________ than Victorian prose: Victorian narratives are linear and predictable, while Joyce’s tortuous plots are fragmented and fickle, and they confound the reader.
Answer
-
banal
-
recondite
-
elegiac
-
mundane
-
panegyric
Question 10
Question
It struck Professor Steele as ____________ (i) that the eighteenth-century Bavarians devoted such effort to building houses of worship because at the same time, the rest of Europe’s religious fervor was _____________(ii), while movements such as nihilism gained steam.
Answer
-
blank (i)
felicitous
-
blank (i)
anomalous
-
blank (i)
querulous
-
blank (ii)
weltering
-
blank (ii)
forswearing
-
blank (ii)
dissipating
Question 11
Question
Ancient generals, lacking modern technologies such as radio and satellite communication, often found that one of the most significant challenges in warfare was accurate __________ of the myriad of changes on the battlefield or in the campaign.
Answer
-
fortification
-
adulteration
-
appraisal
-
accretion
-
adumbration
Question 12
Question
In psychological literature, the “sleeper effect” refers to the phenomenon in which persuasive message from a trustworthy source loses _____________ over time, while the efficacy of a message from a less credible source simultaneously increases.
Answer
-
prescience
-
erudition
-
evasiveness
-
control
-
cogency
Question 13
Question
Pundits do not believe that the sporadic calls for her ouster -outcries spurred by both her unusual lifestyle and social policies- have compelled the monarch to seriously consider ____________.
Answer
-
abnegation
-
vacillation
-
castigation
-
asceticism
-
misanthropy
Question 14
Question
For some time, scientists refused to believe that Earth’s continents are made of moving tectonic plates. Physicists, who could not devise a theory to explain the now-accepted process, rejected the theory outright, as did geologists, who were far too ____________(i) in their thinking, thereby ___________(ii) the advancement of science for a time.
Answer
-
blank (i)
officious
-
blank (i)
assiduous
-
blank (i)
dogmatic
-
blank (ii)
checking
-
blank (ii)
limning
-
blank (ii)
asseverating
Question 15
Question
E.L. Doctorow argues that the role of artists in the 21st century to provide a reminder that even in ___________(i) world, one thing is _____________(ii): America will always be a nation of_____________(iii) free expression.