When a Roman emperor visited a provincial city, an important part of the ceremony of reception was the delivery of _______, in which a local poet or orator would lavish praise on the imperial visitor.
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Solution
( C. an encomium , F. a panegyric )
Since the blank refers to something delivered by a poet or orator and meant to lavish praise, you need something like poem of praise or speech of praise. Three of the choices are the wrong kind of writing: Both an elegy and a jeremiad express lamentation, and a philippic expresses condemnation, so eliminate choices (B), (D), and (E). A compendium is a brief summary, so eliminate choice (A). Both encomium and panegyric can mean poem or speech of praise, so choices (C) and (F) give you appropriate, equivalent sentences.
Despite having earned over two hundred million dollars during his career, the boxer’s _______ spending and bad investments left him insolvent within a few years of retirement.
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Solution
( D. prodigal , E. profligate )
The spending, combined with bad investments, left the boxer insolvent, so you need something like excessive for the blank. Both parsimonious and penurious are nearly the opposite of what you’re looking for, so eliminate choices (A) and (B). Neither perfidious, which means disloyal, nor pugnacious, which means belligerent, makes sense in the blank, so eliminate choices (C) and (F). Both prodigal and profligate can mean excessive, particularly in reference to spending, so choices (D) and (E) give you appropriate, equivalent sentences.
In an era in which mass media is but a thrall of its corporate masters, the amateurish _______ of commercials for local businesses provide a tonic for the slick homogeneity of most advertising.
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Solution
( B. eccentricities , F. idiosyncrasies )
The sentence says that local commercials are a tonic or “cure” for homogeneity or “sameness”, so a good word would be quirks or individualities. Check the answers. Both eccentricities and idiosyncrasies mean quirks.
To call the area _______ was perhaps hyperbolic; while it was quaint and abstracted from the modern life of nearby cities, the presence of mining equipment was decidedly imposing.
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Solution
( D. bucolic , F. quiescent )
Hyperbolic means exaggerated. The correct answers will be words that mean something a bit more extreme than quaint and abstracted from cities that also contrast with the imposition of mining equipment. Germane means relevant to, and doesn’t fit here; eliminate choice (A). Gentrified refers to an area that was previously owned or occupied by poor people and is transformed by more wealthy people. Although it is relevant to the subject, it is a trap that doesn’t fit with the rest of the sentence, so choice (B) should be eliminated. Aplomb (selfconfidence) and rancorous (greatly hostile) are similarly irrelevant to this question, so eliminate choices (C) and (E). Bucolic means idyllically pastoral or rural, and quiescent means quiet or restful. Plugging either into the blank produces a sentence that is congruent, making choices (D) and (F) the best answers.
The results of a survey of movie-goers gainsaid the scholar’s claim that the filmmakers’ intent would remain opaque to most viewers; it seems the metaphors employed were rather _______.
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Solution
( A. perspicuous , C. manifest )
Gainsaid means contradicted, so the words that will fill in the blank will roughly mean transparent. Abstruse and cryptic both mean difficult to understand, so eliminate choices (B) and (E). Neither aesthetic, which means concerned with beauty, nor recalcitrant, which means resistant to authority, fits the meaning you need; eliminate choices (D) and (F). Both perspicuous and manifest can mean easily understood, so choices (A) and (C) produce logical sentences with the same meaning.
Though the futurist conceded that Apple’s iPhone was a revolutionary device, she was adamant that it would not be immune to the same forces that caused such previous “game changing” products as Ford’s Model T and Sony’s Walkman to be considered _______.
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Solution
( D. antediluvian , E. superannuated )
Few want to believe that Lisa de Giocondo, the woman popularly believed to have been the model for da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, was a(n) _______ person and prefer instead to think that there is an enigma behind the celebrated smile.
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Solution
( B. artless , F. ingenuous )
The different-direction trigger word to focus on here is instead, which tells you that the type of person she is should be different from one who has a secret. Inscrutable is similar in meaning to an enigma behind the celebrated smile, so choice (E) is incorrect. Lisa de Giocondo may well have been dulcet or comely, but there is no supporting evidence for these words in the sentence. You may want to rule out choice (B) because it appears to be a trap since the sentence is about a work of art; however, an artless person is one who does not intend to deceive. A good synonym for it is choice (F), ingenuous.
Despite her father’s endeavors to placate his daughter every time she had a grievance, the young girl was simply _______ complainer, and so could always find something else that displeased her.
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Solution
( A. an inveterate , E. a chronic )
The girl could always find something else that displeased her which means that she must be a habitual complainer. She may be an impertinent complainer, but there is no evidence that she was rude in the way she complained. The same problem exists with choices (C) and (F). Oblique, which means not straightforward, does not make sense in context, which rules out choice (D).
For the cities at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where the shortage of rain often leaves wells and rivers empty, a winter without liberal snowfall will mean a _______ of the run-off that normally provides fresh water in the summer months.
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Solution
( C. paucity , E. dearth )
The snow provides the fresh water so if there isn’t much snowfall, the cities will be lacking water. Choices (A), (D), and (F) all have the opposite meaning and proliferation and burgeoning are not really words that could be used to describe run-off either. Paucity and dearth both indicate that something is lacking and are the correct choices.
Regardless of the long-winded answers Michael consistently gave in class, his teachers remember him as _______ student, rather than a garrulous one, because he generally kept to himself.
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Solution
( A. a taciturn , C. an uncommunicative)
The first part of the sentence implies that Michael talked a lot, but the different-direction trigger word regardless tells you that the word in the blank should be the opposite type of description word. Querulous and eccentric are not related to the context at all, and voluble would imply that he did talk a lot. Disinterested may seem like a plausible answer given that Michael kept to himself, but in that case, a more appropriate word would be uninterested.Disinterested indicates a lack of bias, but the sentence does not deal with a debate or judgment.