Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

You may have seen the science fair demonstrations using mixtures of corn starch and water. Corn starch mixed with water is a Non-Newtonian fluid that thickens almost instantly when a sheer force is applied. This means that while you can run your hands slowly through a corn-starch water mixture and it will just feel like goo, a bowling ball dropped on a bowl of corn-starch and water will actually bounce! Scientists have been struggling to better understand this phenomena for years and they are finally gaining some insight into the physical laws that govern the liquids odd behavior. Check out this article for more details and some great slow motion videos.

7/12 Sentence Completion

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

Whenever you have a two-blank sentence completion, always remember to predict the easier blank first, then eliminate as many answer choices as you can with just that prediction. If there is more than one answer choice left, make a prediction for the other blank and eliminate any of the remaining answers that don't match your prediction.

To Judith, traveling was _________; her sister, however, looked upon each trip as an _________ experience.

This sentence completion is fairly unusual because in this case, you can't really predict a specific word for either blank. The key to making a prediction of some sort is the word "however." The sentence tells you that Judith felt one way about traveling, "her sister, however . . . " felt the other way about traveling. That tells you that you are looking for two sharply contrasting words. Now, take a look at the answer choices below and choose the one that matches your prediction.


(A) confusing . . unnerving
(B) joyous . . exciting
(C) exhilarating . . interminable
(D) stupefying . . unhappy
(E) tiring . . exhausting

Remember, you are looking for two sharply contrasting words. (A) has two words that are both negative so it won't work. (B) has two positive words so again, it doesn't match your prediction. (C) on the other hand, fits your prediction well. Exhilarating is a positive word and interminable is a negative word. Before you select that answer though, make sure that you look over the other two choices. (D) and (E) both have only negative words so they don't fit your prediction.

The correct Answer Choice is (C).

Words tested in this SC:
confusing: difficult to understand, not clear
unnerving: making someone nervous or upset
joyous: happy, eccstatic
exciting: stimulating interest and discussion
exhilarating: refreshingly thrilling
interminable: existing or occurring without interruption or end.
stupefying: Astonishing or shocking
unhappy: sad, unsatisfied
tiring: exhausting, draining
exhausting: draining someone of their mental resources, tiring

On sat.collegeboard.org 74% of the responses were correct.

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