Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

Did you know that this evening, daredevil Nik Wallenda is planning to attempt to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope? A tightrope crossing has not been completed in more than 115 years. You can learn more about the history of various Niagra Falls related stunts here. This is a great source for either a current event or a historical "Excellent Example" for your essay.

6/15 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.

Always remember to make a prediction before you look at the answers. Four of the five answers are wrong and looking at the answers first tends to prejudice you towards a specific choice. All the information you need to predict a word and then select the correct answer is in the sentence itself.

Although the conference speakers disliked one another and might have been expected to _________, it turned out that on several substantive issues they were in complete __________ and were able to avoid petty squabbling.

Since this is a two blank sentence completion. The first step is to predict a word for the easier blank and then eliminate as many examples as you can. In this case, the second blank is much easier to predict. You know that "they were in complete________ and were able to avoid petty squabbling." If they avoided "petty squabbling" you can predict that "they were in complete agreement." Now, you can look at the answer choices below and eliminate any that do not match your prediction

(A) argue . . disagreement
(B) bristle . . apathy
(C) debate . . dissonance
(D) concur . . denial
(E) bicker . . accord

In this case, fortunately, you can eliminate all but one of the answers based on your prediction. Only (E) matches your prediction (since "accord" means agreement). If you had been left with more than one answer choice after your first round of elimination, you would then simply go back and predict the second blank to eliminate the remaining answer choices.

The correct answer choice is (E)

Words Tested in This SC:
squabble: a minor fight or argument, as between children for example
argue: to debate, disagree, or discuss opposing viewpoints
dissagreemnt: an argument or debate
bristle: to be on one's guard or to raise one's defenses
apathy: indifference, complete lack of motivation or interest in a person, activity, or object
debate: an argument or discussion, usually in a formal or ordered setting
dissonance: a harsh, discordant combination of sounds
concur: to unite or agree, to have a common opinion
denial: a refusal to comply in a request
bicker: to quarrel in a tiresome and insulting manner
accord: agreement or concurrence of will, opinion, or action

On sat.collegeboard.org 75% of the responses were correct.

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