Step 4: Select the Answer That Best Matches Your Prediction
Among the five choices, the closest synonym for greed is avarice. The correct
answer is E.Double- and Triple-Blank Text Completion Questions
In double- and triple-blank questions, you will be given one to five sentences with
two to three blanks and asked to select the appropriate word for each blank. In
these questions, there are only three choices for each blank, and there is no partial
credit. Let’s look at an example:The writer’s deft mastery of the novelistic form was not, as commonly
thought, a function of (i) : he spent years (ii)
his skills until his previous weaknesses became applauded virtues.Blank (i) Blank (ii)
A innate abilities D genuflectingB artistic sensibilities E honingC overarching perspicacity F deridingWhen working with double and triple blanks, many of the strategies for single
blanks will apply. However, you must keep the following rule in mind: you don’t
have to start with the first blank. Instead, identify which blank will be easier to work
with, and use the methods already discussed to determine the word for the blank.
Then move on to the remaining blank, and use contextual clues to determine the
appropriate word for that blank.
In the previous example, the word in the first blank depends on what comes
after the colon. You should thus determine the word for the second blank first, and
then use that word to determine the word for the first blank.
To determine the word for the second blank, you can use the process outlined
earlier. The contextual clue “until” indicates that the writer did something
to his skills to change them from “weaknesses” to “virtues.” Now make your
prediction. If the writer made weaknesses into virtues, then he probably refined his
weaknesses. Now find the word in the choices that most closely matches refined. Of
the choices, the word that most closely matches refined is honing. Thus the correct
answer for the second blank is E.
Now to determine the word for the first blank, assume that honing is in the
second place, and go through the same process as before. The word in the blank
refers to an erroneous belief about the author’s “mastery of the novelistic form.”
If the writer “spent years honing his skills,” then the talent took time to develop.
It would thus be erroneous to believe that the talents were based on “instinct.” Of
the choices, the phrase that most closely matches “instinct” is innate abilities. The
correct choice for the first blank is A.CHAPTER 4 ■ TEXT COMPLETION 9101-GRE-Test-2018_001-106.indd 91 12/05/17 11:38 am