Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted into the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

Remember to cover the answers before you read the sentence. This is vital because it saves you time! Read the sentence, predict an answer, and match the answer choices to your prediction.

The success of the Norman invasion depended on ------ logistical operation; in planning it, William the Conqueror wisely left no detail ------.

Since there are two blanks, start with whichever one is easier for you. I like the first one in this sentence. From the mentions of logistics and details, it is clear that the invasion was complicated. Something complex and convoluted would depend greatly on details.

Now look at the answer choices and eliminate any choice where the first word does not match your prediction.


A) a puzzling... untarnished

B) a realistic... unsupervised

C) an intricate... overlooked

D) an erroneous... ignored

E) a flawed... unattended

Keep A for now because something involved could easily become puzzling. Keep C as well, since intricate is a synonym of complicated. Eliminate the other choices. Things that are realistic aren't necessarily complex, and since history tells us that the Norman invasion was successful, there is no reason to think that the plans were erroneous or flawed.

Now that you have narrowed down the options, examine the second blank.

William the Conqueror wisely left no detail ------.

What did he do with the details? He paid attention to them; he did not let any of them slip past his notice. Does it make sense to say (A) that he left no detail untarnished? It does not. The only choice remaining is C. Read through the sentence one more time with the words from Choice C.

The success of the Norman invasion depended on an intricate logistical operation; in planning it, William the Conqueror wisely left no detail overlooked.

The answer is C.


Words tested in this SC:
puzzling: Difficult to understand or explain
untarnished: Not soiled or sullied
realistic: like the real thing
unsupervised: Not under constant observation
intricate: having a great deal of detail or complexity
overlooked: missed, unnoticed
erroneous: containing or derived from an error; inaccurate
ignored: Having deliberately failed to pay attention
flawed: having an error, mistake, or imperfection
unattended: unnoticed, not dealt with


On sat.collegeboard.org, 73% of responses were correct.


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