Words in Context Test- 1 - SAT MCQ

We've never read Bao Phi's poetry, so how are we supposed to know what the poems are like? Well, luckily we don't have to.

If we look at the second part of the prompt text (the part after the colon), it tells us what Bao Phi's poems are like: they have a "pleasant musical quality". The most precise word in this context will emphasize the same positive association with music.

"Melodic" also means pleasant and musical, so it best emphasizes the point being made in context. The answer is (C).

Choice A. This doesn't fit the logic of the text. "Depleted" means "used up" or "consumed", and the text never suggests that the flowers in dense patches are sometimes used up or consumed.

Choice B. This is the best choice. The text after the colon tells us that bees will travel beyond dense flower patches that have "low species richness" to find different kinds of flowers. "Homogenous" means "of the same kind" or "alike", which fits this context perfectly.

Choice C. This doesn't fit the logic of the text. The text never suggests that bees are less attracted to immature plants than full grown plants.

Choice D. This contradicts the text. "Dispersed" means "spread out", which is the opposite of "dense". Flowers in dense patches can't also be spread out!

Choice A. This isn't the meaning of "marked" as used here. It wouldn't make sense to say that a vase was "stained at twelve or fourteen dollars".

Choice B. This isn't the meaning of "marked" as used here. It wouldn't make sense to say that a vase was "staged at twelve or fourteen dollars".

Choice C. This isn't the meaning of "marked" as used here. It wouldn't make sense to say that a vase was "watched at twelve or fourteen dollars".

Choice D. This is the best choice. The text suggests that Mrs. Adam's typical Christmas present from her husband was a vase that cost, or was "priced at", about twelve or fourteen dollars.

Choice A. Redundant means "not or no longer useful or needed", which is too strong. The text doesn't suggest that the variation between the samples isn't a useful finding at all—just that we can't assume that the large-scale composition of the asteroid will show the same variation. But the composition of the samples might be useful for something else!

Choice B. Neglected means "suffering a lack of proper care" or "abandoned", which doesn't work here. The text never suggests that the distribution of minerals in the samples would be neglected, so this statement doesn't logically follow.

Choice C. This is the best choice. The text tells us that the samples are too "small scale" to reflect the composition of the asteroid, which probably doesn't show the same variation on a large scale. This suggests that the mineral composition of the samples are unlikely to be exactly the same from sample to sample.

Choice D. Ongoing means "still in progress", which doesn't make sense: the distribution of minerals in a sample can't be "ongoing".

Like many words, "quality" can mean different things in different contexts. It can be a noun that means something like "attribute", but it can also describe how good something is (e.g, "high quality" vs "low quality"). How is it being used here?

"This quality" is phrased in a way that refers back to something in the previous sentence. In particular, it seems to link to "that resourcefulness of movement...), which the previous sentence works hard to describe. That whole phrase, in turn, is being use to characterize the way is behaving.

So, "quality" is being used to describe an "attribute" of how Gatsby is behaving. (A), "characteristic", matches this use.