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New Verbal Reasoning Question Type: Text Completions
Text Completions with Two or Three Blanks Questions of
this type include a short text with two or three numbered blanks,
each blank indicating that something has been omitted. You are
asked to fill all the blanks in the way that best completes the
text. Question Structure
- Passage of one to five sentences in length
- Two to three blanks
- Three answer choices per blank
- The answer choices for different blanks function
independently; that is, selecting one answer choice for one
blank does not affect what answer choices you can select for
another blank
-
- Single correct answer, consisting of one choice for each
blank; no credit for partially correct answers
Sample Questions Directions: For each blank select
one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all
blanks in the way that best completes the text. 1. The
narratives that vanquished peoples have created of their defeat
have, according to Schivelbusch, fallen into several
identifiable types. In one of these, the vanquished manage to
____ (i)_____ the victor’s triumph as the result of some
spurious advantage, the victors being truly inferior where it
counts. Often the winners ____ (ii)_____ this interpretation,
worrying about the cultural or moral costs of their triumph and
so giving some credence to the losers’ story.
|
Blank (i) |
Blank (ii) |
|
anoint |
take issue with |
|
construe |
disregard |
|
acknowledge |
collude in |
2. That the President manages the economy is an assumption
____ (i)_____ the prevailing wisdom that dominates electoral
politics in the United States. As a result, presidential
elections have become referenda on the business cycle, whose
fortuitous turnings are ____ (ii)_____ the President. Presidents
are properly accountable for their executive and legislative
performance, and certainly their actions may have profound
effects on the economy. But these effects are ____ (iii)____.
Unfortunately, modern political campaigns are
fought on the untenable premise that Presidents can deliberately
produce precise economic results.
|
Blank (i) |
Blank (ii) |
Blank (iii) |
|
at odds with |
justifiably
personified in |
usually
long-lasting |
|
peripheral to |
erroneously
attributed to |
regrettably
unnoticeable |
|
central to |
occasionally
associated with |
largely
unpredictable |
3. Of course anyone who has ever perused an unmodernized text
of Captain Clark’s journals knows that the Captain was one of
the most ____ (i)_____ spellers ever to write in English, but
despite this ____ (ii)_____ orthographical rules, Clark is never
unclear.
|
Blank (i) |
Blank (ii) |
|
fastidious |
disregard for |
|
indefatigable
|
partiality toward |
|
defiant |
unpretentiousness
about |
4. Having displayed his art collection in a vast modernist
white space in (i) former warehouse, Mr. Saatchi has chosen for
his new site its polar opposite, a riverside monument to civic
pomposity that once housed the local government. There is
nothing (ii) about the new location: the building’s design is
bureaucratic baroque, (iii) style that is as declamatory as a
task-force report and as selfregarding as a campaign speech.
|
Blank (i) |
Blank (ii) |
Blank (iii) |
|
a decadent |
atavistic |
an ascetic |
|
a claustrophobic
|
spare |
a grandiose |
|
an
unprepossessing |
pretentious |
an understated |
Answer Key: 1 Blank (i) construe
Blank (ii) collude in 2 Blank (i) central to
Blank (ii) erroneously attributed to
Blank (iii) largely unpredictable 3 Blank (i) defiant
Blank (ii) disregard for 4 Blank (i) an unprepossessing
Blank (ii) spare
Blank (iii) a grandiose Strategies Do not simply try
to consider each possible combination of answers; doing so will
take too long and is open to error. Instead, analyze the passage
in the following way:
- Read through the passage to get an overall sense of it.
- Identify words or phrases that seem particularly
significant, either because they emphasize the structure of
the passage (words like although or moreover) or because they
are central to understanding what the passage is about.
- Try to fill in the blanks with words or phrases that seem
to you to fit and then see if similar words are offered among
the answer choices.
- Do not assume that the first blank should be filled first;
perhaps one of the other blanks is easier to fill first.
Select your choice for that blank, and then see whether you
can complete another blank. If none of the choices for the
other blank seem to make sense, go back and reconsider your
first selection.
- When you have made your selection for each blank, check to
make sure that the passage is logically, grammatically and
stylistically coherent.
Next: New
Quantitative Reasoning Question Type: Numeric Entry |
