Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

Recently, a woman was arrested in Jacksonville, FL, for road rage. Someone cut her off, so she rammed his vehicle! Yesterday, the driver was sent to jail and a news article was posted online. When you look for Current Events to include in your essay, make sure to find the most recent developments. "Current Events" six weeks out of date will create an impression that you weren't willing to put in enough effort to complete your research. 

5/4 Sentence Completions

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

Always read the sentence carefully before looking at the answer choices. Remember that four of the five answer choices are wrong, and they are likely to change the way you think about the problem. Look for clues first, then make a guess based on what the sentence says. Compare this prediction to the answer choices and you will find the correct answer.

Refuting the claim that the surest way to reduce anger is to express it, the author asserts that ------ anger can actually increase its ------.

First, there is a claim about managing anger, which the author refutes; your first clue is the word refute. Refute means "to deny the truth of something" or "to prove something to be false," so the words in the blanks will convey that expressing anger will not actually help one deal with it. In fact, "expressing" works perfectly as a prediction for the first blank. Check that prediction against the answer choices.


A) denying . . impact

B) understanding . . importance

C) overcoming . . likelihood

D) venting . . intensity

E) voicing . . benefits

Both D and E, venting and voicing, involve expressing one's feelings. Denying anger is the opposite of expressing it, so eliminate A. Understanding anger has nothing to do with how one reacts to it, so eliminate B as well. Finally, overcoming anger is a worthy goal in any upsetting situation, but it does not mean the same thing as expressing one's feelings, so eliminate C as well.

That leaves two words for the second blank, intensity and benefits. Only "intensity" makes sense; while anger can have certain benefits, they are not addressed in this sentence. The answer is D.

Refuting the claim that the surest way to reduce anger is to express it, the author asserts that venting anger can actually increase its intensity.

Words tested in this SC
deny: to assert that something is not true
impact: to influence; to affect
understand: to be aware of the meaning of; to believe, based on information
importance: significance; prominence
overcome: to prevail over; to get the better of
likelihood: the probability of a specified outcome
vent: to allow something to escape, as through a vent
intensity: the degree of strength
voice: to give utterance or expression to
benefit: an advantage, help, or aid


On sat.collegeboard.org, 56% of responses were correct.


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