Test: Text Completion - 1 - GRE MCQ

The key words in this sentence are “While” and “But”. Both these words represent contrast.

While alcohol causes obvious and immediate changes, nicotine ...(try to use your own word or phrase here).. does NOT cause immediate or obvious changes. So we might think that nicotine is less harmful. But the word immediately after that “BUT” tells us that it is wrong to think so: Nicotine is equally harmful to health.

So the word or phrase in the blank has to mean “less obvious or immediate”.

Choice D is the best option.

In more complex sentences, the structure and construction becomes important. You might find clauses and modifiers which add more and more information and make the sentence longer. In such cases, it helps to simplify the sentence to understand its structure. For example, this sentence can be rephrased to remove a lot of the detail present in it.

Racine borrowed from Greek tragedy. The first blank seems to refer to the amount that Racine borrowed from Greek tragedy. Did he borrow a lot, or did he borrow very rarely? The last part of the sentence gives us a clue – a certain theme from Greek tragedy was (therefore) recurrent in Racine’s work. If the theme was recurrent (appearing frequently), it indicates that he borrowed heavily from Greek tragedy. So he borrowed “in plenitude” (meaning abundantly) Answer option A.

The clue to the second blank in the sentence is the theme present in Racine's work - which is the indifference of the gods. Choose an answer option which is tying in with “indifferent”.

What is the meaning of indifference?
Not interested in. Not caring about. Cannot be bothered about.

What will go with the Gods do not care about?
The sufferings and aspirations of humanity. Answer option D.

Choice A & D are the correct answers.

Meanings for the words given in this question are provided in the table. Before going through the detailed explanation, check whether you are able to arrive at the answer after knowing meanings for the words.

To fill in the blanks effectively, we need to understand the details of the story. We can do this by breaking down the events presented in the sentence and re-ordering them in a way that makes sense to us.

There was a scandal involving a politician. This scandal was discovered by a reporter. How did the reporter discover the scandal? He questioned several people who gave them their accounts of what happened. Now, if there was nothing wrong, the accounts given by various people should have matched. But people gave varying accounts of the events concerning the scandal. This “aberration” in accounts is probably what led the reporter to uncover the scandal.

Since the reporter figured out all of this, he or she must have been clever (or astute).

Now, the scandal coming to light is not in the interest of the politician. So he would have tried to lie about it, or divert attention from it. He must have prevaricated in his statements about the scandal.

Choices B, F, and H are the correct answers.

Meanings for the words given in this question are provided in the table. Before going through the detailed explanation, check whether you are able to arrive at the answer after knowing meanings for the words.

Nostalgia is the sentimental feeling that conditions in the past were better than conditions now. The sentence says that this is a distorted picture of reality. Nostalgic people feel (wrongly) that conditions in the past were better than conditions in the present. This happens because nostalgia makes the past look better than it was, and the present worse than it is.

So, events from the past are made better than they were, and more recent events are cast in a more negative light, somehow minimizing them and reducing their worth.

The answer to the first blank cannot be “eliciting”, because nostalgia does not bring out hidden or forgotten memories. Also, the memories (if they are elicited) could also be of negative events.

“Edifying” is incorrect because we are looking for a word that makes past events seem better than they were. Edifying makes past events more enlightening and easier to understand. So, exalting is the best answer for the first blank.

The answer to the second blank cannot be “demoralizing” or “ridiculing”, because events themselves cannot be demoralized or ridiculed.

Choices C and E are the correct answers.

Meanings for the words given in this question are provided in the table. Before going through the detailed explanation, check whether you are able to arrive at the answer after knowing meanings for the words.

Let us simplify the second part of the sentence to understand how it is structured - Even the slightest sign of A can be interpreted as B. This means that B is a more drastic and exaggerated version of A. A, by itself is not too bad, but it is exaggerated and interpreted as B, and thus made out to be much worse.

B has to be an exaggerated version of A. The only combination that makes sense is B and F. Even the slightest sign of dissent is interpreted as sedition.

The combination C-E does not make sense because the sentence talks about negative ideas such as suppression of free press by an authoritarian government.

Choices B & F are the correct answers.

Understanding the context can sometimes clearly tell us the meaning of the word which has to be placed there.

The cost of getting a private pilot's license is very high in Europe and lower in some south-east Asian countries. If a prospective pilot has to get his or her license in Europe, he or she will face the problem of high cost. But this cost can be avoided (using our own word here) if the license is obtained in a south-east Asian country. The only word which has the same meaning as “avoided” is circumvented. Answer option D.

Averted is a close answer option, but it is not correct because when a problem is averted, it goes away, or does not happen. In this case, the costs will still remain high in Europe even if pilots get their licenses in Asia. So the problem is only circumvented.

Choice D is the correct answer.

The key word in the sentence is the word “surprisingly”. The word “surprisingly” indicates that the two phenomenon are not expected to appear together (so one would be surprised if they did).

There is a high number of school dropouts and juvenile delinquents. This means that youngsters in the town are not very accomplished. But surprisingly, the town also has the highest number of bright and talented (using our own word/phrase) youngsters.

The word that fits best is precocious.

Choice E is the correct answer.

In sentences that have multiple blanks, always start out by filling up the easier blank first.

How do we know which blank is easier?
A blank that has more clues pointing to it is easier. In this case, the first blank is the easier one because of the keyword “despite” immediately before it. The placement of the word “despite” suggests that the blank has to contain a negative word. People continue being involved with a substance despite the negatives associated with it. This narrows the answer options to A or B.

The third sentence provides the required information to decide between these two choices. Nowhere in the 3 sentences is the cost discussed. The primary issue is dependence and not the cost. So, we can rule out choice B. The Answer option A is appropriate for blank 1.

After you have filled the easier blank, read the sentence again. Sometimes, additional clues may pop up, or you may get more clarity while reading a sentence again with your chosen answer option for the first blank. In other times, it may lead you to revise your initial answer option too!

The second blank in this sentence explains what addiction is, in terms of usage or involvement of a person. Initially, the substance or activity may have made the person happy, HOWEVER (note the keyword here – however indicates contrast) once a person is addicted, the substance or activity is needed even just to feel normal. So, it necessitates continued involvement. Answer option D fits the bill perfectly.

Choice A & D are the correct answers.

Let us start by figuring out the easiest blank. The first blank offers a clue through the keyword “While”. We know that the word while, in most cases, indicates a contrast. A simplified version of the first sentence would be: While “motif” may appear ___ to “theme”, it differs. So, the word in the blank has to be the exact opposite of the word “differs”.

Answer option B (identical to) is correct for blank 1. “Similar to” would be incorrect because it already implies that there might be differences between the two. Two things can be similar and yet differ somewhat.

Answer option A is incorrect because it places the emphasis on the interchangeability of the terms “theme” and “motif” rather than on their perceived equivalence. The true opposite of “interchangeable with” would be the “uniqueness” of the term motif. For example, if “interchangeable with” was indeed the correct answer, the sentence should have read: “while it may appear interchangeable with the term “theme”, the term “motif” is unique and has a meaning of its own.

The second and third blanks form a sentence which appears to tell us how inclusive and broad the definition of a motif is. It tells us that any one of the listed things can be a motif. The second and third blanks collaborate to give us a sentence which accomplishes that.

“Any number of narrative elements with symbolic import can be classified as motifs whether or not they are images, structural or stylistic devices, or other elements such as sound, physical movement, or visual components in dramatic narratives".

In the second blank, “determined by” is incorrect because it implies that the motif is acting to ascertain something, which is impossible. “Clubbed together as” implies that a set of diverse items have been put together in an unwieldy manner. Option E, “classified as”, gives the correct meaning to the sentence.

The answer to the third blank is not “because” or “although” – there is no causation (because is used when there is a causation) or contrast implied.

Choice B, E, and H are the correct answers.

Meanings for the words given in this question are provided in the table. Before going through the detailed explanation, check whether you are able to arrive at the answer after knowing meanings for the words.

This is an easy question if the meanings of the answer options are clear.

The professor went to great lengths to create a motorized replica of the solar system. Why did he do that? So that he could explain the solar system to his students more clearly. In order to explain or talk about the solar system, he created the replica.

Choice B is the correct answer.