McGraw-Hill Education GRE 2019

use contextual clues whenever you infer the meaning of a sentence. Take a look at

the following sentence and choose your own word for the blank.

In contrast to his earlier , Jack is now extremely diligent.

What word did you put into the blank? Was it something like laziness or apathy? If

so, why? Chances are, you recognized that the phrase “in contrast” indicated that

the word in the blank should be the opposite of Jack’s current “diligent” behavior.

In the preceding example, “in contrast” is the contextual clue. It tells us that how

Jack is now will be the opposite of how Jack was before.

Contextual clues will typically fall into three categories:

■ Contrast signals: but, yet, nonetheless, nevertheless, despite, in spite of, in

contrast, contrasted with, opposed to, although, however, on the contrary,

rather than, still, though

■ Continuity signals: indeed, and, also, moreover, furthermore, in addition, in

fact, semicolon (;), colon (:)

■ Cause-effect signals: thus, therefore, consequently, due to, because, since, as

a result, hence, so

Now that you have looked at contextual clues, let’s look at the steps for answering a

typical Text Completion question.

Due to an insatiable , the business executive felt no qualms

about employing unethical means to generate profits.

A benevolence

B curiosity

C ambiguity

D deliberateness

E avarice

Step 1: Identify the Contextual Clue

In the previous sentence, the phrase “due to” is a cause-effect signal.

Step 2: Determine the Contextual Clue’s Relationship

with the Rest of the Sentence

Determine the relationship that the contextual clue creates between the blank and

the different parts of the sentence. In the example, the phrase “due to” indicates

that the word in the blank will characterize someone willing to pursue unethical

means to generate profits.

Step 3: Predict Your Own Word for the Blank

From Step 2, you know that the word in the blank will describe someone who will

take extreme measures to make money. What would be an appropriate word to

describe this behavior? Greed comes to mind.

90 PART 2 ■ GRE ANALYTICAL WRITING AND VERBAL REASONING

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