Umay Text Completions

1.
Favoring quantity over substance, many amateur writers labor under the delusion that the more
____________ the sentence structure the more ____________ the thought being conveyed.

Blank (i) Blank (ii)

A. rudimentary D. tactical
B. involved E. ironic
C. superficial F. profound

2. Countless generations have been divided on Mendelssohn’s ____________—should he inhabit the same
pantheon as Bach and Haydn, or be ____________ to the ranks of could-have-beens? After all, it can be
argued that his ____________ came at the age of 14 with his Octet in E-flat, a work, many believe, the
composer never eclipsed in his remaining twenty-six years.

Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)

A. technique D. relegated G. apogee
B. posterity E. elevated H. precocity
C. legacy F. sublimated I. nadir

3. Unlike the trend in modern art to ____________ reality, the trend in photography has yet to fall prey to
such an impulse; photographs that lack ____________ are often seen as nothing more than oddities.


A. depict D. timeliness
B. subvert E. notoriety
C. elaborate upon F. verisimilitude

4. Fukushiyama’s aesthetic can rightly be called (i) _______, yet this designer’s work is also so (ii) _______
that it often amounts to little more than a pastiche of bygone styles.


A. outdated D. inconsistent
B. eclectic E. derivative
C. groundbreaking F. predictable

5. Despite striking parallels in class stratification between ant and human societies, the progressive
forms of government sprouting up over the last few centuries indicate that our lots are far less
________.

A. tyrannical
B. variable
C. constrained
D. simplistic
E. malleable

6. The flood of innovation that has engendered many of last decade’s technological breakthroughs has
also claimed some victims in its wake: companies once at the (i) ___________ of such innovation have
now become (ii) ___________.


A. brink D. remarkably pioneering
B. vanguard E. mostly obsolete
C. periphery F. increasingly relevant

7. Heinrich Feyermahn, in insisting that Galileo did not fully uphold the tenets of scientific rationalism,
does not ____________ the Italian astronomer, but rather the very edifice of Western thought. For if
Galileo is the purported exemplar of rational thinking, and yet is ____________, then the history of
science cannot be understood as an endless succession of scientists carrying out their work free of all-
too-human biases. Thus, Feyermahn admonishes, in faithfully chronicling the sweep of science in the
last 300 years, historiographers would be ____________ not to include the human foibles that were part
of even the most ostensibly Apollonian endeavors.


A. exclusively implicate D. found wanting G. prudent
B. partially repudiate E. considered H. remiss
C. fully espouse enlightened I. contrarian
F. dismissed as
inconsequential

8. While some maintain that the recent proliferation of uncredited web sources will have a(n) (i)
______________ effect on scholarship, others argue that the effects will be far more (ii) ______________,
claiming that academics are sensible enough not to (iii) ______________ unattributed sources.


A. inestimable D. harmful G. place credence in
B. pernicious E. benign H. take issue with
C. minute F. subtle I. express skepticism
towards

9. The ____________ common in the earlier days of the regime gave way to a ____________ time, during which
few recalled the former pandemonium with anything more than a hint of nostalgia.


A. tumult D. straitened
B. corruption E. halcyon
C. torpor F. chaotic

10. Some cynical to space travel have quipped that since the Earth has always felt bashful over its lack of
rings, man has seen it fit to ______________ this omission: the accumulated detritus—derelict satellites,
debris from manned spaced project, and diverse space junk—orbiting our planet, they feel, should
make our planet feel a little less insecure.

A. notice
B. redress
C. speculate on
D. disregard
E. resolve

11. Revolutions do little to cure a nation’s ____________ – the very agitation that allowed for a change in
previous rule often precludes the formation of a viable government.

A. jingoism
B. paranoia
C. restiveness
D. euphoria
E. cupidity

12. Because reading on the Web entails quickly scanning and sorting through a deluge of information,
many wonder if our level of engagement with the text has been ____________ or if the ability to read
closely and carefully is one that can be ____________ if we simply spend more time immersed in a book.


A. irreparably compromised D. fully reactivated
B. tentatively disrupted E. further degraded
C. permanently restored F. summarily disregarded

13. The Hellenistic and Judaic philosophy of the early centuries did not so much ____________ ancient Greek
philosophy as it did ____________ the Platonic concepts of this time with its understanding of the way in
which an ideal world, or one of perfect forms, ____________ the existence of a perfect being. Even the
philosophy of the Middle Ages was so inextricably bound with the ideas of ancient Greece that many
philosophers could hardly imagine discussing the existence of a perfect being without invoking the
conceptual framework laid down by Plato more than a thousand years earlier.


A. adapt D. supplant G. allowed for
B. displace E. reconcile H. circumvented
C. foreshadow F. corrupt I. called into question

14. Unlike the performances of her youth, in which she seamlessly inhabited a role, the performances of
her later years were ____________, as though she were calling out to audiences, “look how convincingly I
can portray my character.”

A. decrepit
B. comical
C. volatile
D. mechanical
E. contrived

15. For all his ____________, Honore de Balzac betrayed a remarkable ____________ to the plight of 19th
century women, populating his novels with characters sympathetic to women’s rights.


A. affability D. contemptuousness
B. diffidence E. sensitivity
C. boorishness F. obliviousness

16. The movie comprises several vignettes, each presenting a character along with his or her foil: a staid
accountant shares an apartment with a(n) ____________ musician; a tight-lipped divorcee on a cross-
country roadtrip picks up a(n) ____________ hitchhiker; and finally, and perhaps most unconvincingly,
an introverted mathematician falls in love with a(n) ____________ arriviste.


A. colorful D. garrulous G. unpredictable
B. insatiable E. untrustworthy H. gregarious
C. eminent F. forlorn I. bumbling

17. While conceding that some of the scientific literature has been (i) ________ poorly controlled studies,
the faulty use of statistics and even downright fraud, Ellison is (ii) ________ in maintaining that such
instances are rare—even a few flawed studies can give us a distorted picture of the phenomenon
under study.


A. vitiated by D. missing the larger point
B. inundated with E. clearly wrong
C. immune to F. partially justified

18. Many philosophers are known for a single utterance, an (i) ____________ saying that long outlives them.
There is often (ii) ____________ in this phenomenon. While most undergraduate philosophy students can
quote the 18th Century philosopher David Hume as saying “Reason is the slave of the passions,“ David
Hume himself actually consigned this apothegm to the marginalia of his text. In all likelihood, he had
(iii) ____________ he had ever written any such thing.


A. unfocused D. subtle wisdom G. soon forgotten
B. epigrammatic E. great irony H. readily denied
C. obscure F. wide renown I. inadvertently
conceded

19. For readers of novels, in which the denouement is drawn out, every loose plot thread neatly wrapped
up, the short story often has a(n) ________ feel to it.

A. meandering
B. interminable
C. understated
D. unfinished
E. retrospective

20. Special effects in movies are ____________, in that unlike the story, whose permutations seem to have
long ago been ____________, they continue to evolve: if we were magically beamed years into the future
(of course that story has been told numerous times before), the special effects would ____________; the
story would be awfully familiar.


A. predictable D. evaluated G. be incomprehensible
B. exciting E. conveyed H. hold us in thrall
C. juvenile F. exhausted I. remain unchanged

21. The number of speeding tickets one receives is by no means a reliable measure of ____________. Some
____________ drivers, in fact, prove that in certain cases the inverse is true. That is those savvy enough to
have availed themselves of the latest cellular phone applications receive up-to-the-minute
information on the presence of highway patrolmen—greater excess speed, in these instances, simply
implies a greater ____________.


A. awareness D. affluent G. degree of confidence
B. culpability E. intrepid H. sense of vulnerability
C. susceptibility F. resourceful I. likelihood of
entrapment

22. To claim that the prevailing account of an important incident, whether it happened last century or last
week, is corrupted by disinformation is to enter (i) ________ waters, for any subsequent account offered
is similarly (ii) ________ such charges.


A. familiar D. related to
B. uncharted E. guilty of
C. treacherous F. not immune to

23. She gave him a(n) ____________ look that was not so much ____________ as it was ____________.


A. knowing D. accusatory G. egregious
B. encouraging E. approbatory H. tentative
C. unequivocal F. fastidious I. admonitory

24. Hollywood has a way of ____________ reality, thereby completely altering not only past events but our
perception of these events. To take but one example, after watching Milos Forman’s Oscar-Winning
Picture, Amadeus, audiences smugly walk away “knowing” the Italian composer Antonio Salieri
sordidly did away with the divine genius Mozart. That such a story is at best a ____________ is, to them,
not even a(n) ____________.


A. subtly hewing to D. sensation G. fabricated deception
B. casually distorting E. contrivance H. implausible matter
C. fundamentally F. canard I. remote possibility
transmuting

25. The term “robber barons”, which refers to those powerful business moguls at the turn of the 19th
Century, is hardly a(n) ____________, despite some of these robber barons' outward gestures of
philanthropy. Infamous for their insatiable ____________, the robber barons were finally held in check by
the ascendancy of a more powerful centralized government.


A. anachronism D. braggadocio
B. misnomer E. cupidity
C. provocation F. truculence

26. That we can, from a piece of art, (i) ____________ the unconscious urges of the artist—urges that remain
hidden even from the artist himself—will remain a(n) (ii)______________ issue, as it is one (iii) ___________
empirical analysis: we can never definitively know what is submerged deep inside the artist’s psyche,
let alone reconcile any such revelations with the artist’s work.


A. derive D. practical G. easily subjected to
B. appreciate E. intractable H. not readily amenable
C. subvert F. unambiguous to
I. likely to be resolved by

27. Because even his ____________ would be loath to consider his novels ____________, either the reviewer of
his latest work has been ethically compromised, or the author has actually plotted what can, in all
positive senses of the word, be described as a thriller.


A. staunchest advocates D. dishonest
B. most implacable opponents E. riveting
C. most sympathetic detractors F. straightforward

28. As editors, each of the two writers served as a(n) (i) ________ the other’s rhetorical excesses, so that
each submitted news articles free of unnecessary (ii) ________.


A. inspiration for D. bias
B. check on E. equivocations
C. foil for F. embellishments

29. Ironically, for someone whose novels were populated with characters typically marked by a(n)
(i)____________, the author himself made tabloid news with exploits that suggested not even a (ii)
____________.


A. consummate urbanity D. modicum of civility
B. piercing intellect E. semblance of normalcy
C. unmitigated temerity F. trace of wherewithal

30. For an artist of such circumscribed talent, Mario was given ____________ attention, many connoisseurs
____________ over works that warranted nothing more than a(n) ____________ glance.


A. scant D. poring G. derisive
B. sporadic E. passing H. cursory
C. scrupulous F. faltering I. tentative

31. The kind of journalism that insists on clinging to time-honored forms of reportage is (i) ________ insofar
as it fails to exploit social media. At the same time, were a traditional news service, by whole-
heartedly embracing the Internet, to disregard the very tools that allowed for its ascendancy in the
first place, it would likely (ii) ________.
.


A. shifting D. develop a unique style
B. negligent E. undergo a major transition
C. languishing F. suffer a similar fate

32. While Vorotsky sometimes indulges in sentimental notions, surely his entire body of work does not
warrant the label ____________.

A. trite
B. acerbic
C. treacly
D. melancholic
E. tawdry

33. Thumbing his nose with equal derision at Mozart as he did at Monet, Thomas was an avowed
____________, treating all arts with contempt.

A. aesthete
B. secularist
C. chauvinist
D. inquisitor
E. philistine

34. The term “rocket scientist,” as used to denote somebody of great erudition, is (i) ________ given that the
last few decades has seen a flowering of vocations just as worthy of (ii) _________, and far more topical.


A. inaccurate D. this exalted term
B. appropriate E. identification with such individuals
C. anachronistic F. interstellar ambitions

35. Pared down over the years to the point of ____________, Stockton’s prose nevertheless preserves the
writer’s insights - indeed they are ____________ than ever.


A. austerity D. keener
B. abstraction E. more vague
C. artlessness F. more formal

36. A new school of thought has it that innate talent can be conveniently ____________ a series of readily
____________ factors — Mozart’s genius then is no divine blessing of the type conferred on a select few,
but is simply the result of a patriarchal father who stressed, above else, thousands upon thousands of
hours of grueling practice.


A. reduced to D. intrusive
B. misattributed to E. quantifiable
C. measured by F. pervasive

37. Whereas the incumbent’s opponents feverishly worked around the clock, digging up seemingly
irrelevant information only to contort a(n) (i) _________ incident so that it appeared unequivocally
damning, the incumbent himself resorted to no such (ii) _________ and preferred instead to calumniate
his opponents during highly publicized debates.


A. benign D. desperate subterfuge
B. unambiguous E. concealed outpouring
C. disgraceful F. subtle promotion

38. Had the committee any (i) ______________ that it was being investigated for fraud, surely it would have
been more (ii) ______________ in trying to cloak any venality.


A. question D. suspicious
B. inkling E. hesitant
C. hindsight F. diligent

39. The columnist was so vehement in his opposition to the divisive issue of fracking that even when he
moderated his comments his piece was too _________________ for publication.

A. astute
B. volatile
C. incendiary
D. censored
E. inscrutable

40. For an obscure poet to have penned such a refined, poignant sonnet is not at all ____________. The
sonnet, after all, has been a favored form for hundreds of years amongst the amateur and lionized
alike. I would be ____________, on the other hand, had not one, out of the sheer number produced during
this time, surpassed Shakespeare on a bad day.


A. rare D. confounded
B. puzzling E. vindicated
C. conceivable F. hard-pressed

41. Many imagine philosophy apparelled in a toga walking about the Greek agora, (i)______________
questions of great import; yet philosophy (ii) ______________ today, only we have traded the agora for
the Internet: many online venues exist in which the intellectually curious discuss the very same
questions that once reverberated through the open air of Athens’ marketplaces.


A. holding forth on D. continues to be imperilled
B. disproving E. is very much alive
C. dismissing F. remains esoteric

42. She was not so (i) ______________ as to begrudge the mathematician the fanfare he received after
purportedly solving a hitherto intractable problem in number theory; nevertheless, once the furor
died down she was not (ii) ______________ in pointing out what she believed to be some notable
inconsistencies in his proof.


A. savvy D. loath
B. self-effacing E. charitable
C. churlish F. unstinting

43. Understandably far from (i) _________, the initial response to the revelation that crucial details of
Cragmeyer’s autobiography had been knowingly fabricated has given way to (ii) _________, the
press now only waving a finger at Cragmeyer whenever any major autobiography is in the offing.


A. encomiastic D. intermittent obloquy
B. short-lived E. unceasing indifference
C. conspicuous F. increasing umbrage

44. Alexander Selkirk, the real life Robinson Crusoe, is often held up as the (i)________ of the “free spirit”;
yet in personal notebooks, he discusses at length how he is (ii)________ travel, unable to resist the
compulsion to head for the furthest reaches of the globe, even at the risk of personal harm.


A. rejection D. an ardent advocate of
B. atavism E. in the thrall of
C. incarnation F. romantically drawn to

45. At once pioneering and ____________, her work owes a substantial debt to her predecessors, many of
whom grant she has done ____________ to advance the field.


A. subtle D. little
B. visionary E. much
C. derivative F. nothing

46. Able to coax a palpable sense of menace from the bucolic backwaters of her native Missouri, Micheaux
adroitly shows us, in her latest book, that a surface of idyllic charm can ______ a roiling underbelly of
intrigue, corruption, and murder.

A. subsume
B. belie
C. counteract
D. preface
E. complement

47. Where intelligence is concerned the trend has been to conflate (i) _______ with (ii) _______, the notion
being that the most intelligent adults stood out from their peers in grade school, and that those who
indeed did were the ones who went on to make the most significant contributions to their fields.


A. ability D. experience
B. precocity E. actuality
C. probability F. potentiality

48. ____________ centuries of would-be conquerors, the Aztec fortress of Chapultepec seemed ____________,
until U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott were able to take the fortress with surprisingly little
effort.


A. Enticing D. obsolete
B. Murdering E. comprehensive
C. Thwarting F. impregnable

49. What is currently (i) ______________ civil engineers is not so much a predicted increase in annual
precipitation as the likelihood that many storms will come in (ii) ______________, thereby making
flooding in lower lying riparian regions (iii) ______________.


A. worrying D. more predictable G. far more likely
B. comforting patterns H. somewhat infrequent
C. unimportant to E. tighter succession I. all but impossible
F. greater isolation

50. (i) ________ internal strife within the current regime, the media firm partial to the splinter group eyeing
a coup was perhaps a little too (ii)________ in publishing an editorial critical of the government, which
quickly put its house in order, squelched the opposition group, and summarily declared the piece
(iii)________.


A. Dismissing D. dilatory G. a probing exposé
B. Sensing E. hasty H. an act of treason
C. Causing F. prescient I. a resounding victory

51. There is a rising consensus amongst immunologists that the observed rise in allergies in the general
population can be attributed to (i) ____________ exposure to everyday germs. Known as the hygiene
hypothesis, this counterintuitive idea could have far reaching implications—for one, we may now
have to be more (ii)____________ those paternal prescriptions to scrub our children’s hands at every
opportunity.


A. frequent D. wary of
B. decreased E. cognizant of
C. heightened F. indifferent to

52. The modern sensibility, which favors plot mechanics over lyrical panache, has done little to (i) _______
the aging author’s fondness for flowery prose. None of this seems to matter much, as the episodes in
his latest romp are so uproarious that even younger readers will find themselves readily (ii)________
the author for the unwarranted use of six-syllable words.


A. inspire D. praising
B. temper E. forgiving
C. revive F. faulting

53. Modern psychoanalysis is ___________ Freud, for while he bequeathed us an effective heuristic for
understanding the human psyche, he is also guilty of perpetuating many untruths.

A. dismissive of
B. ambivalent toward
C. condemnatory of
D. indifferent to
E. uninformed about

54. The question as to what constitutes art is hardly a ____________ one. Today, artists exist whose main
goal seems only to subvert work that no longer warrants the trite tag “cutting-edge.” Once the
proverbial envelope is pushed even further, the public inevitably scratches its collective head – or
furrows the collective brow – thinking that this time the “artists” have ____________. That very same
admixture of contempt and confusion, however, was not unknown in Michelangelo’s day; only what
was considered blasphemous, art-wise, in the 16th Century, would today be considered ____________.


A. perennial D. served their purpose G. hackneyed
B. contemporary E. gone too far H. reverent
C. controversial F. failed to provoke I. tame

55. Whether repression has come from the church or from a totalitarian state, science has always been an
imperiled endeavor, but to claim that it will only flourish in times of libertarian rule is not a(n)
____________ conclusion. A(n) ____________ government is not the same as one that actively takes an
interest in funding science – and the latter may well be, in some respects, ____________.


A. superficial D. despotic G. corrupt
B. ineluctable E. aloof H. inviolate
C. tentative F. permissive I. autocratic

56. That the comedian was so ____________ as to be unable to ____________ the effect she had on others was
not lost on her audience, who quickly stood up to leave, hoping their action would at last ____________.


A. coarse D. discern G. serve as an uncommon
B. oblivious E. mitigate retort
C. genteel F. ignore H. send an unambiguous
message
I. provide a cryptic
counterpoint

57. Keane argues that the political conditions during the early years of the United States were, if anything,
(i) ___________ to the formation of a nation united by one document: the Constitution. Rather, had it not
been for a few men—Keane invokes the triumvirate of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison—to (ii)
___________ the Constitution, despite the seemingly implacable opposition of anti-Federalists, the
central government would have had to (iii) ___________ matters of rule to the individual states.


A. permissive D. challenge G. cede
B. conducive E. champion H. reintroduce
C. inimical F. undermine I. deny

58. ____________ abound in geography: the city of Alexandria is named after Alexander the Great;
Leopoldville, the former name of Kinshasa, is named after King Leopold II of Belgium.

A. Eponyms
B. Derivatives
C. Metaphors
D. Tropes
E. Diminutives

59. Lacking the ____________ of Martha Argerich, Mitsuko Uchida, in her piano recitals, is ____________, looking
up calmly to the heavens as her fingers glide across the keys.


A. precision D. maladroit
B. subterfuge E. subdued
C. tempestuousness F. forthright

60. The subjectivity inherent in travel is aptly captured in the range of styles used by different writers.
For Hemingway, writing eighty years ago, the experience of travel—regardless of how momentous—
was rendered in (i) ____________ observations, a style many of today’s writers studiously (ii) ____________.
Then there is travel writer Pico Iyer, for whom a simple stroll through an airport can beget sentences
bursting forth with as many semicolons as revelations. Who thought the terminal could be so (iii)
____________? Surely not many writers today.


A. prosaic D. avoid G. irrevocably wrenching
B. aphoristic E. lampoon H. wildly unpredictable
C. sardonic F. cultivate I. endlessly fascinating

61. An efflorescence of creativity rarely occurs in a ____________ milieu; even a modicum of strife, whether
in the home or in society at large, can spur great work in both art and literature.

A. contentious
B. genial
C. stagnant
D. compromised
E. exposed

62. While society may regard science as some ____________ activity closed off to the ____________ masses, the
daily life of a scientist — driving to work each day, checking emails, meeting deadlines — can seem
____________.


A. grand D. disheveled G. irredeemably prosaic
B. arcane E. benighted H. surprisingly quotidian
C. illicit F. huddled I. relentlessly hectic

63. That we may become flaccid after our rivals have been vanquished, and we are surrounded by those
friendly to our interests, is in no way a(n) ____________ observation. Still, history is rife with examples
where a sense of ____________ pervades once a people has achieved victory. Yet, even were this insight
more ____________, few would take notice, as human nature is wont to ignore future threats in times of
prosperity.


A. pithy D. duty G. widely circulated
B. trite E. camaraderie H. clearly unassailable
C. astounding F. complacency I. hastily dismissed

64. Hemingway’s imagination was nowhere near as ____________ as that of James Joyce – yet the latter
published ____________ works.


A. fecund D. far fewer
B. warped E. less controversial
C. stunted F. more estimable

65. That the web may seem some ____________ phenomenon, hardly rooted in the physical world, is a notion
clearly ____________ by the existence of “server farms,” sprawling forests of metal that, figuratively
speaking, provide the backbone of the Internet.


A. ethereal D. buttressed
B. ephemeral E. betrayed
C. faddish F. unsupported

66. The classical music critic suffers the double indignity of opining on a field that the layman mostly
____________: not only must he deal with the fact that the public tends to look ____________ on critics but
he must also risk coming across as ____________ a subject in which few deign to show any interest.


A. spurns D. askance G. deeply moved by
B. embraces E. unduly H. dispassionate about
C. misinterprets F. smugly I. condescending
towards

67. Since memories of recent events tend to be far more accessible, during a prolonged economic
upswing investors often ________ plausible scenarios forecasting a recession.

A. endorse
B. discount
C. predict
D. discuss
E. imagine

68. n conservative scientific circles, embracing an unorthodox theory, especially one that is backed up by
little empirical evidence, is tantamount to ____________; indeed, any scientist who does so may be
____________ .


A. eccentricity D. vanquished
B. reversion E. lionized
C. heresy F. ostracized

69. James Clerk Maxwell once remarked that the best scientists are, in a sense, the ____________ ones; not
hemmed in by the ____________ of their respective fields, they are able to approach problems with a(n)
____________ mind, so to speak.


A. adaptable D. myopia G. fertile
B. revolutionary E. preconceptions H. rational
C. ignorant F. inertia I. empty

70. Some note that the increase in the Native American powwow—an intertribal affair of song, dance, and
storytelling, all intrinsic aspects of Native American culture—serves to (i) ______________ the very
culture it presumably aims to (ii) ______________. They argue an overarching cultural narrative emerges,
one that (iii)______________ the narrative of any one tribe.


A. erode D. foster G. subsumes
B. distill E. undermine H. elaborates upon
C. empower F. question I. overcomes

71. In rendering his figures without heads, Gascoux ________ the prevailing aesthetic, which held the
human form sacrosanct.

A. disembodied
B. recapitulated
C. corrupted
D. exalted
E. subverted

72. Inspiration rarely leads to great writing unless coupled with a(n) ________ regimen, one which affords
writers ample opportunities to experience a flash of insight.

A. tedious
B. exacting
C. unexpected
D. inconsistent
E. widespread

73. The biographer who provides a ____________ of detail, even when those details are accurate, ____________
of distorting reality; the greater the number of facts that have to be fashioned into a ____________
narrative, the greater the chance that the narrative, regardless of how consistent, will in any number
of ways fail to accord with what really happened.


A. wealth D. has an unlikely chance G. cumbersome
B. paucity E. runs a heightened risk H. cohesive
C. smattering F. concocts a plan I. profound

74. Public officials recently announced plans to (i) __________ noise pollution in parts of the downtown.
Aside from citing the usual costs of enforcing ordinances, the city also referenced reports indicating
that residents had become (ii) ___________ the hubbub, a finding that, for the most part, is not (iii)
___________ the dearth of media coverage on the issue—when a municipality is responsible for
disgruntled citizens, the newspapers are sure to follow up with a flurry of coverage.


A. scrap D. enraged by G. incompatible with
B. curb E. flustered by H. reconciled with
C. condone F. inured to I. mitigated by

75. Advocates of anti-smoking campaigns are (i) _____________ the fact that the number of smokers per
capita has (ii) _____________ since the 1970s, perhaps aware that, lest this trend reverse itself, their
message, which is predicated on dire predictions, is likely to be more (iii) __________ than one rooted in
reality.


A. quick to cite D. remain unchanged G. harmful
B. reluctant to E. been dramatically H. disingenuous
acknowledge ballooning I. efficacious
C. indifferent to F. been steadily
decreasing

76. Unlike her predecessor, Mayor Williams would not ____________ any impertinence from her
subordinates. Even a ____________ comment she tended to construe as one full of ____________.


A. discountenance D. seemingly innocuous G. subterfuge
B. elicit E. clearly tangential H. prolixity
C. brook F. somewhat ambivalent I. contumely

77. There are few ____________ thrills to be gleaned from Kafka’s writing, for his characters, which typically
embody ideas, are not fleshed out enough for the reader to become fully immersed in their plights.

A. novel
B. vicarious
C. tangential
D. precarious
E. substantive

78. That, through no fault of his own, George Cuvier, the father of extinction theory, has mostly slipped
into obscurity, his name typically surfacing only in paleontology journals, is an outcome that—given
his field and his claim that his work would endure—smacks of ___________.

A. unexpectedness
B. arrogance
C. magnanimity
D. irony
E. insignificance

79. Claire’s moods shifted drastically and unexpectedly – one moment she was ____________, chatting lively,
the next she was ____________, looking forlornly out of the window.


A. prolific D. unflappable
B. dysphoric E. taciturn
C. ebullient F. despondent

80. Some minor governmental bungling in the environmental sector can ____________ what many watchdog
organizations are declaiming as gross negligence: indeed entire swathes of once fertile land now gone
barren ____________ flaws in state policy.


A. certainly mitigate D. cannot solely be attributed to
B. clearly misrepresent E. can eventually be traced to
C. hardly account for F. result directly from

81. News blogs have become popular, as many offer ____________ commentary not found in most traditional
media, which tend to eschew publishing writing that may be deemed offensive by some.

A. fastidious
B. trenchant
C. poignant
D. timely
E. insightful

82. Managers who categorically squelch insights from low-tiered employees run the obvious hazard of (i)
____________ creativity; conversely, these very same managers are more likely to (ii)____________ any
ideas that flow down from the top brass.


A. fomenting D. unquestioningly embrace
B. smothering E. arbitrarily denounce
C. sparking F. conditionally approve

83. Lambert, in his latest thesis, is guilty of (i) ____________ Nietzsche’s conception of eternal recurrence, a
scholarly transgression that results mainly from his propensity to (ii) ____________ multiple sources.
That his interpretation seems (iii) ____________ may indeed obscure the fact that he liberally combined
ideas drawn from numerous works, many of them contemporary, a fact that, in part, accounts for the
dubious validity of his overall project.


A. equivocating upon D. enjoin G. tentative
B. misconstruing E. conflate H. cohesive
C. undervaluing F. misquote I. disjointed

84. Sprawling and unfocused, the novel unwittingly ends up ________ the life of its chief protagonist, who
was equal measures capricious and insatiable.

A. capturing
B. diminishing
C. mirroring
D. celebrating
E. tarnishing

85. Once thought (i) _________ the ambit of philosophy, the topic of free will has now come under the
purview of science, thereby (ii) _________ philosophy’s role as the ultimate arbiter of Truth on the
matter.


A. germane to D. reprising
B. independent of E. impugning
C. exclusive to F. refuting

86. With the critics waiting in the flanks, their pens flourished like rapiers, Henderson ______________ what
would inevitably be a media circus regarding the release of yet another of his popular—though
always pilloried in the press—series of books featuring a dashing heroine capable of unlimited
physical prowess and endless derring-do.

A. lampooned
B. balked at
C. steeled himself for
D. invited
E. contemplated

87. No less incendiary amongst the populace than many other “hot button” issues of the day, “fracking”—
or hydraulic fracturing of the earth’s surface to acquire gas, a practice that mostly takes place in
remote parts of the country—has been (i) ___________ the national dialogue come election time, perhaps
because voters are typically (ii) ___________ environmental problems that do not occur in their own
backyards, so to speak.


A. unfairly tarnished in D. misinformed about
B. a prominent theme in E. worked up over
C. curiously absent from F. unmoved by

88. In Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov’s autobiography, the author seems as ____________ an ornate
prose style as with communicating, often in excruciating detail, the ____________ of a singular life,
describing his family’s fall from aristocracy following the Bolshevik Revolution.


A. taken with D. apotheosis
B. inimical to E. vicissitudes
C. unaccustomed to F. generalities

89. Despite protestations to the contrary, Peyermessen had clearly ____________ complete sections of text
from works that, while ____________, were not unknown to specialists in the field, who accused him of
plagiarism.


A. omitted D. dated
B. lifted E. prominent
C. interpreted F. uninformative

90. The choreographer was mainly concerned with ____________ details, as the period production required
the leads to don a number of different outfits.

A. frivolous
B. sartorial
C. practical
D. sporadic
E. inchoate

91. The conception of time as parcelled out in ______________ intervals did not begin with the advent of the
clock; as such we must have a biological predisposition to not conceive of time as simply an
amorphous succession of moments.

A. fleeting
B. illusory
C. unbounded
D. discrete
E. indiscernible

92. While caffeine is well-known as a stimulant, few are aware that an excess of caffeine can actually have
a ____________ effect.

A. restorative
B. paradoxical
C. soporific
D. revitalizing
E. detrimental

93. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the Manhattan project as the architect of the atomic bomb left such
a(n) (i)_____________ on the public conscience that the remaining fifteen years Oppenheimer spent (ii)
____________ nuclear weapons seem a mere historical footnote.


A. indelible mark D. campaigning for
B. fleeting impression E. further testing
C. significant diversion F. railing against

94. The contention that Hopkin’s extensive anthropological fieldwork led to a unified theory is ____________
— close scrutiny reveals a ____________ of observations that, at times, even prove ____________ one
another.


A. redoubtable D. mere hodgepodge G. inimical to
B. specious E. coherent system H. convergent with
C. unbiased F. meticulous scaffolding I. susceptible to

95. For charities operating in the developing world, when noble impulses (i) ______________ into mere (ii)
______________, vapid slogans rear their heads and we witness a further deterioration in the very
situation such high-mindedness had initially sought to (iii) ______________.


A. devolve D. quixotry G. limit
B. morph E. fraud H. prevent
C. coalesce F. altruism I. ameliorate

96. That the nightmarish depictions common to most early 20th century dystopian novels are
exaggerated should by no means diminish the _________ power of these works, for many of the visions
they conjure up are reflected, albeit in less vivid form, in many totalitarian governments today.

A. synoptic
B. ephemeral
C. comprehensive
D. apolitical
E. prophetic

97. ____________ in the 1990s, Swing music has since ____________ in popular venues, returning to its former
state of middling popularity.


A. Abundant D. alighted
B. Uncommon E. petered out
C. Resurgent F. burgeoned

98. According to Lackmuller’s latest screed, published under the title, Why We Can’t Win at Their Game,
special interest groups not nominally tied to ecological concerns have become so (i) ___________ the
process of environmental policymaking that those groups who actually aim to ensure that corporate
profit does not trump environmental health have been effectively (ii) __________. Lackmuller’s
contention, however, is (iii) __________ in that it fails to account for the signal achievements
environmental groups have effected over the last 20 years—often to the chagrin of big business.


A. marginalized in D. vindicated G. somewhat tentative
B. indebted to E. squelched H. rarely myopic
C. influential in F. lionized I. highly misleading

99. True, to the classically trained ear, Haydn’s early works can often seem ____________, a mishmash of
motifs from which anything fresh has been wrung dry by subsequent composers—to the ears of
Haydn’s contemporaries, however, Haydn’s music was ____________.


A. complex D. refreshingly novel
B. predictable E. prematurely antiquated
C. hackneyed F. highly derivative

100. All too often scientists are quick to ____________ findings that ostensibly fail to mesh with their own
research; nonetheless, such a response is ____________ compared to the ____________, if not downright
contemptuous, attitude they take towards a theory that questions the very foundation upon which
their work rests.


A. discuss D. unquestionably G. complacent
B. doubt vitriolic H. convivial
C. clutch at E. positively muted I. dismissive
F. slightly undiplomatic

101. What is the greatest novel of all-time? Many top-100 lists have been proffered, purporting to
resolve this very issue. Yet the ____________ those compiling these rankings suggests that any definitive
list is not ____________.


A. consensus amongst D. far off
B. divergence of opinion of E. forthcoming
C. collective repute F. laudable

102. Critics who charged that the technology start-up had blatantly appropriated the laptop design of
the leading manufacturer failed to take into account a recent report citing that the start-up had been
anything but ______________, as not only was it the first to market, but pictures of its original design had
initially surfaced publicly.

A. hesitant
B. dominant
C. innovative
D. unscrupulous
E. posthumous

103. There seems to be an inverse relationship between how the author is treated in the press and how
he is seen in his own literary circle: the more the critics savage his work, the more _________ his
acolytes.

A. hostile
B. cautious
C. outlandish
D. obsequious
E. anticlimactic

104. Long regarded as one of the most dangerous summits, Mt. Rainier presents numerous
challenges— ____________ weather can form from seemingly innocuous clouds, making the slopes so
____________ that even the most ____________ hiker can be caught unawares.


A. routine D. demanding G. presumptuous
B. inclement E. precarious H. well-prepared
C. sweltering F. bucolic I. intrepid

105. To the senior manager, unsolicited opinions, even if the views expressed did not necessarily (i)
______________ his own views, were (ii)______________ ; thus, employees had learned to be (iii)______________
lest they no longer found themselves in his good graces.


A. gel with D. overt G. reticent
B. countermand E. nettlesome H. sycophantic
C. clash with F. welcome I. elusive

106. Scientists have learned to be cautious when discussing conditions on other planets that might
seem ________ life; more than once microbes have popped up in the most inhospitable parts of our own
planet.

A. protective of
B. conducive to
C. relevant to
D. indifferent to
E. inimical to

107. On August 27th, 1883, the Indonesian island of Krakatoa, home to a highly volatile volcano,
disappeared overnight in a display of stunning geological prowess that continued ____________ even
after the island had vanished, as a series of massive seismic shocks created a tsunami with waves of
150-feet high that traveled nearly a thousand miles.

A. furtively
B. haphazardly
C. undiminished
D. hypothetically
E. retroactively

108. The major scientists of the early 20th century have been enshrined in the public imagination, not
so much as the cold, clinical types we tend to associate with today’s scientists, but as _________ figures
so otherworldly in their cognitive powers as to seem godlike.

A. superannuated
B. unprepossessing
C. redoubtable
D. personable
E. unfriendly

109. The popularization of science by writers with a knack for making the abstruse ____________ is not an
exclusively modern calling. Indeed the origins of this specific craft harken back to Voltaire, who, in his
Elements of the Philosophy of Newton, made the ____________ writing of the revered British physicist
digestible to a lay audience.


A. ordinary D. greatly cherished
B. pellucid E. practically inscrutable
C. unapproachable F. virtually unknown

110. Very few veteran critics tend to be ____________ the recent decade in cinema. Nonetheless, based on
movie reviews many could easily come to the conclusion that the last ten years were indeed banner
ones. Once the province of lettered intellectuals, a few even household names (Pauline Kael comes to
mind), the role of the movie critic has been ____________ by those lacking any notable credentials. With
this flood of veritable tyros opining from the rafters, a movie’s overall rating—as compiled and
tabulated by popular Internet sites–often times confers a(n) ____________ on a film, an assessment that
posterity will most likely deem specious.


A. enamored of D. duly appropriated G. aura of nostalgia
B. condemnatory to E. amply filled H. mantle of inviolability
C. unsympathetic F. irredeemably I. patina of respectability
disgraced

111. Many are quick to contend—albeit falsely—that the personal essay is a(n) _______ genre:
historically, the form has always played second fiddle to the more brash acts, such as the novel or
long-form journalism.

A. recent
B. introspective
C. marginalized
D. understated
E. moribund

112. When constantly (i) ________, apocryphal quotations can make the truth seem (ii)_________. For
instance, people often spout the phrase “Play it again, Sam,” (iii) _________ quoting Humphrey Bogart in
Casablanca. When they watch the movie, they assume that the actor has botched his lines during the
scene in which he says, “Play it, Sam.”


A. bandied about D. elusive G. faithfully
B. discredited E. suspect H. ostensibly
C. eschewed F. ironclad I. retroactively

113. The stage of the daytime talk show has become our Roman coliseum: the audience ________ the
“guest”, who is meant to atone, over a cacophony of jeers, for some unseemly behavior.

A. reviles
B. humors
C. offends
D. snubs
E. extols

114. History has recast the 15th century Florentine monk Girolamo Savonarola as a rabble-rousing
zealot lording over the "bonfire of the vanities”; yet this so-called _______ —mainly because he directed
his censure at the church—was a crusader for austerity and thus a check on a papacy that had run a
course of profligacy.

A. ascetic
B. nonpartisan
C. heretic
D. martyr
E. libertine

115. A successful revolution, whereby those who have unseated the previous government are able to
usher in an irenic transformation, is not (i) _____________. Nonetheless, scholars, and even the public at
large, persist in believing that the American Revolution, while clearly successful, bequeathed a(n) (ii)
_____________ that all restive nations need only follow to enjoy effective self-rule. One must look no
further than the sweep of the 20th century, to realize the (iii) _______________ of this conception.


A. the norm D. template G. futility
B. an aberration E. notion H. ambiguity
C. an archetype F. maxim I. folly

116. The travel writer’s ______________ towards others he met on his cross-country trip most likely
endeared him only to those readers with a misanthropic bent.

A. diffidence
B. humility
C. cynicism
D. garrulity
E. obsequiousness

117. Many relatively obscure musicians admit to being (i) _______the fact that the eminent jazz critic
reviewed their work, yet he seemed to listen and to write (ii) ________, his appetite roving around
seldom explored nooks of the repertoire, once the big names had been exhausted. Such inclusion,
then, was more (iii) _______ than approbatory.


A. skeptical of D. compulsively G. inevitable
B. flattered by E. hesitantly H. fault finding
C. unaware of F. with spontaneity I. conjectural

118. Though the university was virtually _______ , the pageantry put on for visiting students suggested
otherwise.

A. monolithic
B. insolvent
C. unknown
D. anachronistic
E. elitist

119. An element of _________ on the part of the audience is interwoven into the multi-era saga, for two
actors portraying the same character at different phases of life are distinguishable enough that the
audience is able to discern differences for which the mere passing of years cannot account.

A. surprise
B. foreboding
C. disbelief
D. confusion
E. predictability

120. The gallery hinted at the curator’s affinity for ______________ works: despite an overarching theme
to the exhibit, the pieces ranged from Incan pottery to African tribal masks.

A. obscure
B. revitalized
C. veritable
D. eclectic
E. forgotten

121. Gearing up for the 2008 Olympics, the city of Beijing worked with impressive ____________: the
National Stadium, colloquially referred to as the Bird’s Nest, a work of such grandiosity that most
municipalities would have labored five years to complete, was finished in less than half that time.

A. repute
B. tyranny
C. dispatch
D. hardiness
E. insolence

122. It is telling that a politician long adept at inhabiting any role that will serve his immediate purpose
has been able to (i) ______________ a disgruntled electorate, an outcome that perhaps speaks more to the
electorate’s (ii) ______________ nature than it does to his ability to be (iii) ______________.


A. easily placate D. fickle G. persuasive
B. only repel E. disaffected H. candid
C. shrewdly court F. docile I. misleading

123. Most see Gutjens’s latest book as a(n) _________ his previous works — yet he has always made it a
habit of confounding expectations, and so any of his novels could bear this tag.

A. coda to
B. elaboration of
C. departure from
D. synopsis of
E. inducement of

124. When researchers follow the scientific method, the absence of ____________ proof by no means
suggests a theory lacks validity. Indeed, no theory is ____________ : each can always be subject to further
testing and scrutiny, and thus, by definition, remains ____________.


A. ineffable D. cherished G. equivocal
B. sufficient E. porous H. suspect
C. irrefutable F. unassailable I. provisional

125. Whereas for most of the West art is merely something to stand and gawk at, for the Navajo Indians
art has a far more ____________ function; sand paintings are used to heal those who are sick—either in
body or mind—and only these afflicted individuals are allowed to see the art: as soon as they recover
the painting is ____________.


A. curative D. refurbished
B. religious E. destroyed
C. peripheral F. exhibited

126. To the extent that it foresaw the effect the Internet would have on society, what makes the
Frankfurt School—an early 20th century school of thought concerned with how rampant
consumerism harms the self—(i) _______ is not so much that it explodes much of what has sometimes
proven to be a symbiotic relationship between our “real selves” and our “digital selves” as that it
imagines a world so positively (ii) _______ that it becomes but a(n) (iii) _______ of the times in which we
live.


A. suspect D. charged G. validation
B. prescient E. utilitarian H. caricature
C. relevant F. dystopian I. rejection

127. Jansen’s writing strikes many as (i) ______________ : for one who is capable of enduing even the most
recondite topics with a(n) (ii) ______________ tone, his prose becomes (iii) ______________ in the informal
correspondences he had with his contemporaries.


A. pedantic D. acerbic G. curiously stilted
B. forbidding E. cautious H. fully realized
C. paradoxical F. breezy I. somewhat unguarded

128. As spurious sightings of imaginary creatures that have captured the popular mind (i) ______________,
however (ii) ________________ a story may be, once it has been circulated enough times, it will gather a
patina of (iii) ______________.


A. diminish D. clever G. neglect
B. entail E. apocryphal H. truth
C. suggest F. captivating I. deceit

129. The British-led force’s landing at Gallipoli made for such a(n) (i) ______ foray into the Ottoman
theater of World War I that Max von Oppenheim, a German political adventurer in league with the
Ottomans, believed that the attack must have been a (ii) ______ and that Britain had saved her better
infantry for an imminent landing upon an area that was (iii) _______.


A. strategic D. resounding success G. not so heavily exposed
B. clandestine E. mere feint H. similarly situated
C. unpropitious F. major provocation I. unevenly fortified

130. Far from eschewing a(n) ____________ lifestyle and adopting one commensurate with that found in
developing nations, the international humanitarian outreach has accorded its members perquisites
befitting a decadent monarchy.

A. noble
B. austere
C. conventional
D. extravagant
E. cloistered

131. In censuring the academic committee for apparently being ____________ in appointing a chancellor,
the university president mistook ____________ for procrastination—the committee had been guilty of
nothing more than a scrupulous vetting of all candidates.


A. biased D. prevarication
B. dilatory E. deliberation
C. overzealous F. vacillation

132. Perhaps then the greatest failing of this deluge of positive psychology books is not that they (i)
___________ the complexity typical of psychology in general—and in this case replace it with a breezy
glibness—but that they dispense advice that is so (ii) ___________ and littered with platitudes as to be
bereft of the very succor the public requires during our (iii) ___________ times.


A. invoke D. pat G. heady
B. address E. evocative H. trying
C. eschew F. convoluted I. halcyon

133. With characteristic ____________, H.L. Mencken skewered the sacred cows of his time, criticizing
social trends and government institutions with equal asperity.

A. hauteur
B. playfulness
C. vitriol
D. civility
E. dash

134. Presidents who filled their cabinets with (i) ______________ viewpoints tend to have a more storied
legacy than those whose cabinets were made up of men with a more (ii) ______________ outlook, men
who dissented little with their respective presidents.


A. belligerent D. provincial
B. dissimilar E. uniform
C. educated F. robust

135. It is well known amongst classical music aficionados that the principal violinist will often dazzle
audiences by playing with seeming _______, though every note will have been rehearsed countless
times and with unwavering focus.

A. unease
B. abandon
C. vibrancy
D. amateurishness
E. exactitude

136. The critics were so ____________ in their ____________ that Scheinhauer, a librettist known to become
squeamish after a light smattering of applause, retreated from public view.


A. merciless D. praise
B. fulsome E. condemnation
C. opaque F. derision

137. The effects of radiation are ______________: only after many years, once a chronic disease surfaces, do
people realize they had, at some point in their lives, been exposed.

A. debatable
B. insidious
C. obvious
D. indiscernible
E. benign

138. The mantra “publish or perish” is so well known amongst academics that it is difficult to _______ the
life of a researcher, however many accolades are showered on a few luminaries.

A. trivialize
B. discuss
C. objurgate
D. romanticize
E. slight

139. Creativity rarely flowers in a(n) ________ milieu, so it is somewhat curious that Mann’s formative
years as an artist can best be described as sunny.

A. toxic
B. gloomy
C. stagnant
D. genial
E. oppressive

140. Darwin’s influence on modern scientific inquiry is largely (i)_______ ; yet while Darwin’s ideas
inform fields as disparate as genetics and social psychology, one cannot help but think that each
group, in (ii)_______ Darwin’s ideas, has imparted a slant that might have surprised Darwin.


A. anecdotal D. subverting
B. commonplace E. appropriating
C. uncontested F. questioning

141. In claiming that there are overarching commonalities among every culture, Jungenfreud perhaps
(i) ____________ his case: while there are most likely universal belief systems and recurrent myths
spanning both time and civilizations, depending on the level of (ii) ____________ of a scholar’s criteria,
surely not all societies display the exact same characteristics--it is one thing to say that every people
has an elaborate view of the afterlife (as Jungenfreud does); it is another to show uncanny parallels
between the particulars of this afterlife (as Jungenfreud fails to do).


A. overstates D. sophistication
B. misrepresents E. specificity
C. elucidates F. similarities

142. To the ____________ eye the jungle canopy can seem little more than a dense latticework of branches
and leaves. For the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, even a small area can serve as a veritable
____________ of pharmaceutical cures. The field of ethnobotany, which relates both to the natural
pharmacy offered up by the jungle and the peoples who serve as a store of such knowledge, has
become increasingly popular in the last decades as many anthropologists, hoping to take advantage of
this vast bounty, learn the language and customs of the tribes in order to ____________ them thousands
of years worth of knowledge.


A. untutored D. cornucopia G. glean from
B. sophisticated E. invasion H. allot to
C. veteran F. dissemination I. purge from

143. Refusing to ____________ his vituperative words, the ambassador only further ____________ members of
the multinational committee.


A. exacerbate D. intrigued
B. moderate E. encouraged
C. intensify F. incensed

144. It is telling that some scientific ideas that were once (i) _______ have recently garnered (ii) _______
the intelligentsia, for who knows which ideas now considered (iii) _______ might one day upset the
prevailing paradigms.


A. forgotten D. disapprobation from G. overtly elaborate
B. ridiculed E. currency amongst H. patently false
C. protected F. scorn from I. beyond reproach

145. The professor repelled many students with his ____________ asides, often droning on about some
trivial academic point.

A. subtle
B. alluring
C. pedantic
D. contemptuous
E. edifying

146. Traditionally (i) _________ in their criticism of the hazards of nuclear power—which are undeniably
pressing—many environmental groups failed to cite any viable energy alternatives; still, these very
groups often (ii) __________ the success of “green technologies,” innovations that, until very recently,
were able to provide only a fraction of the power required to sustain a populace.


A. muted D. derided
B. vociferous E. trumpeted
C. misguided F. condoned

147. Rubens, for all his high-flown rhetoric, churns out book reviews that have come to seem
_______________: from decades of critiquing others' prose, he now relies on a familiar and tired formula.

A. scathing
B. perfunctory
C. erudite
D. mawkish
E. draconian

148. Cryptozoology is predicated on a notion that is every bit as ___________ as the very quarry it aims to
study: one cannot disprove the existence of that which does not exist.

A. mysterious
B. irrefutable
C. cautious
D. elusive
E. fundamental

149. It was not out of mere ______________ that Mozart, by then well established, sought out a young
Beethoven—in the latter’s early work Mozart divined a genius that he hoped to, in some way,
cultivate.

A. contrariness
B. solicitude
C. surliness
D. prejudice
E. enlightenment

150. When speculating that every idea worth any intellectual merit has been thought up long before,
cultural critics are all too aware that their position is its own _______—yet they express it anyhow.

A. omission
B. rebuttal
C. equivocation
D. rejoinder
E. confirmation

151. For a writer with a reputation for both prolixity and inscrutability, Thompson, in this slim
collection of short stories, may finally be intent on making his ideas more ________________ to a
readership looking for quick edification.

A. aesthetic
B. prescient
C. palatable
D. inaccessible
E. transcendent

152. For someone so unjustifiably ______ success, the recently installed CEO perhaps surprised very few
when his series of impractical business solutions did not ______ the floundering firm.


A. assured of D. pan out for
B. intrigued by E. end disastrously for
C. unfamiliar with F. reflect negatively on

153. For all her brilliance, Ada was undone by a(n) _________ that led her to disparage those who took
any speculation too seriously, averring that the philosophical mind worked best when it did not
attach itself too strongly to any one line of thought.

A. arrogance
B. insouciance
C. misconception
D. extravagance
E. agnosticism

154. To quite a few scholars in other fields, literary theory is a(n) _________ genre, yet in taking this
position they all too easily forget that literature, exactly because it poses many unsettled questions,
demands exegesis.

A. bygone
B. ancillary
C. thorny
D. nebulous
E. superfluous

155. Though the accounting firm was exonerated of any corporate malfeasance, the perception that it is
not completely ____________ has persisted.

A. unscrupulous
B. aboveboard
C. competent
D. tarnished
E. unforthcoming

156. Our (i) ______ the visual world—from the most startling colors to the tiniest distinction between
two shades of grey—is only possible through the finely tuned (ii) _______ of eye and brain. For without
light striking the retina, there would be no image for the occipital lobe to project, in a manner of
speaking, onto the part of mind responsible for our visual awareness. And without the occipital lobe
to (iii) ________ the cacophony of visual input being relayed from the eyes, there would be no coherent
picture of reality to perceive.


A. apprehension of D. collaboration G. suppress
B. habituation to E. perception H. reform
C. repudiation of F. differentiation I. manage

157. One of the main charges leveled against The Great Gatsby is that it is populated with fake, hollow
characters. While this assertion carries some truth, it misses much of what Fitzgerald set out to do in
the novel, and the literary aesthetic necessary to pull it off. The 1920’s flappers were themselves
playing a part that did not allow for much (i) _______. Even the main character, Jay Gatsby, at his
seemingly most (ii) _______ inhabits a role he has artfully crafted. Perforce, Fitzgerald created many
characters who were not wrestling with existential doubts but who served as a(n) (iii)_______ a time
and a place.


A. talkativeness D. inscrutable G. endorsement of
B. depth E. confessional H. denial of
C. taciturnity F. superficial I. backdrop for

158. There are two skeins to Darwin’s thought that are, at first blush, (i) _________: Darwin believed that
a gradual change in the environment brought about commensurately gradual changes to organisms
(descent by modification), and therefore that man was no different from any other species; yet,
though he opposed the catastrophist school of thought, which posited that animals changed in the
face of massive calamity—either perishing or adapting—Darwin also (ii) __________ humankind in the
sudden disappearance of animals, thereby implying that man indeed was (iii) _________ all other
species (he caused the extinction of other species) and such extinctions were the result of a massive
calamity—man.


A. counterintuitive D. implicated G. beholden to
B. aligned E. absolved H. opposed to
C. irreconcilable F. supported I. unique amongst

159. A school of conservationist thought that continues to gain traction in academic circles contends
that despite the most noble of intentions, the U.S. National Parks and Forests Services has, in allowing
for the uncurbed growth of trees within parks, contributed to the ____________ forest fires. While it is
true that park rangers can respond to fires quickly, often such fires are far fiercer than in areas not so
____________ trees and underbrush. That is not to say that all fires are deleterious: indeed forest fires
play an appreciable role in the functioning of the ecosystem; they ____________ the growth of trees so
that any given area is less likely to become densely wooded.


A. decrease in D. choked with G. check
B. depletion of E. devoid of H. foster
C. outbreak of F. distant from I. eradicate

160. No less ____________ than his predecessor, the new prime minister already faced opposition from
those who charged that he refused to ____________ even on trifling issues.


A. obdurate D. budge
B. impertinent E. stonewall
C. munificent F. intervene

161. Perhaps there is nothing more to the album than its case that experimentalism into uncharted
sonic landscapes did not ____________ with Stockhausen. Or perhaps its forays—many of which could
rightly be dubbed sophomoric—into the avant-garde also lead to the ____________: that to create an
unprecedented sound one has to ____________ a discernible melody.


A. come full circle D. unsettling conclusion G. choose to create
B. culminate E. unwarranted H. forgo producing
C. die hypothesis I. subtly embed
F. uncharacteristic
rebuttal

162. Edgar Allen Poe biographers tend to fall into two camps: those who try to rescue the man himself
from a macabre world in which fate had decreed nothing less than a(n) (i) ______________ outcome, and
those who (ii) ______________ that very myth, treating the subject as one for whom a life of tragedy was
(iii) ______________ .


A. dire D. dispute G. all but inevitable
B. unforeseen E. hold fast to H. clearly unexpected
C. auspicious F. squelch I. hardly justified

163. Recent meteorological conditions in areas of the northeastern part of the country have been so
____________ as to leave scientists ____________. Even those models scientists developed to ____________
these extreme outliers have been found wanting.


A. predictable D. indifferent G. accommodate
B. aberrant E. dumbfounded H. circumscribe
C. taxing F. crestfallen I. discount

164. It ill behooves the president elect to forthwith ______________ the policies that kept his predecessor
in good standing on both sides of the political divide.

A. enact
B. abrogate
C. promulgate
D. require
E. embrace

165. In his critique of the student’s ____________ essay, the writing instructor mostly focused on
____________ details, leading many in the class to believe he was either oblivious to the subtleties of the
piece or simply envious of the student.


A. meandering D. trifling
B. polemical E. nuanced
C. probing F. significant

166. That traditional forms of media—despite considerable variance in the quality of writing—tend to
report on a range of issues (i) ____________ by the demands of the readership should (ii) ____________
those who believe that the demise of each media outlet signals a lamentable reduction in the scope of
news reported.


A. unbounded D. discourage
B. circumscribed E. mollify
C. sensationalized F. rile up

167. To view a film by Torneau is to enter the auteur’s mind. That his reality fails to correspond in
salient ways to that of a “normal” person does not ____________ —even if Torneau is incapable of
escaping his own head. To appreciate his work, the audience simply has to indulge the director his
____________and leave at the theater door its own ____________.


A. justify censorship D. solipsism G. demands for coherence
B. serve as a rebuke E. spontaneity H. expectations of
C. preclude a connection F. chauvinism resolution
I. presumptions of the
world

168. While the aviators had hoped for no ____________ meteorological events, the weather became
increasingly ____________ , with wind tossing their plane as they crossed the Pacific.


A. crucial D. torrid
B. untoward E. inclement
C. propitious F. predictable

169. In (i) ________ what they see as a culture so dominated by technology as to be rendered incapable of
sustained introspection, the authors cast generalizations so wide that all but the hardiest Luddites
will remain (ii) ________.


A. bemoaning D. committed
B. glorifying E. unconvinced
C. overlooking F. dispirited

170. What tradition has long known, science must labor through its usual rigorous protocols to arrive
at the very same assessment. Concerning learning in infants, recent findings (i) ______________ this
trend: the timeworn yarn that babies are (ii)______________ —and oftentimes disregarding—stimuli
from their surroundings has been turned on its head; although (iii) ______________ exhibiting a mastery
of their respective worlds, infants are constantly conducting experiments—very much like scientists
themselves—testing their limits vis-a-vis an environment at once enchanting and frustrating.


A. buck D. passively receiving G. far from
B. uphold E. subtly parsing H. known for
C. underscore F. actively I. potentially
misinterpreting

171. Mike Tyson, during his ____________, was the most feared fighter in the world; his fall from eminence
was as astonishing as it was ____________.


A. tenure D. seemly
B. debasement E. unsustainable
C. heyday F. precipitous

172. That the psychopharmacological journal had already published the findings of the clinician’s
experiment rendered ____________ any prior misgivings she had regarding the validity of her control
group.

A. extant
B. moot
C. fallacious
D. topical
E. retroactive

173. For the time being, at least, the director’s intent is _______: he has remained reticent during
interviews, and even viewers have had wildly divergent interpretations over the film.

A. fixed
B. unambiguous
C. equivocal
D. provisional
E. unorthodox

174. That the word “ bloviate”—originally used to describe how American president Warren Harding
spoke pompously and at length—is still most often employed in a political context shows that
politicians are still prone to forsake ________ speech.

A. honest
B. humorous
C. improvisational
D. direct
E. illogical

175. Whether the network renews the latest pilot series ____________ the critical assumption that the
audience will not only empathize with a male protagonist very different from it, but will continue to
do so once he begins to commit acts that are clearly reprehensible.

A. invites
B. supports
C. stems from
D. indulges in
E. hinges upon

176. For environmental advocates, the increased focus on ecoefficiency (measures to reduce negative
environmental impact brought on by businesses processes) might seem (i) ______. Were these
advocates more informed on the possible ramifications of ecoefficient practices, they would likely
regard those businesses conforming to ecoefficient standards with (ii) ______. For one, businesses that
conform to such standards and become profitable can reinvest this money into industries that are
ecoinefficient, or these businesses, if wildly successful, can through sheer scale create more (iii) ______
than they did before.


A. an outdated approach D. outright opposition G. waste
B. a counterproductive E. measured skepticism H. opportunities
strategy F. a conciliatory stance I. improvements
C. an unqualified gain

177. Amongst business school students exists a(n) (i) ______________ that the more (ii) ____________ the
material, the less bearing it will have on their respective futures. This unspoken notion is by no means
(iii) ____________ by the finding that business leaders who read voraciously cite as their favorite works
books that offer practical guidance on how to succeed.


A. apt supposition D. topical G. supported
B. representative trend E. esoteric H. redressed
C. tacit belief F. theoretical I. challenged

178. Vermeer is able to imbue his paintings with a saintliness verging on the ____________, a quality that is
in sharp juxtaposition to the ____________ of his subjects: a milkmaid preparing breakfast, a servant
tidying up a messy kitchen.


A. artificial D. similarity
B. numinous E. conviviality
C. hagiographic F. banality

179. By the beginning of the 20th Century, piano pedagogy had advanced fingering technique to such a
degree that even students with a ____________ were able, with targeted practice, to execute thorny
passages, while exuding the ____________ of a polished salon pianist.


A. modicum of dexterity D. superciliousness
B. semblance of pitch E. sanguineness
C. consummate technicality F. aplomb

180. With numerous exciting public works projects in the offing, residents are understandably (i)
____________ ; yet because such prodigious undertakings are inevitably plagued with numerous
setbacks, much of the fervor is likely to be (ii) ____________ a heavy dose of reality.


A. vexed D. tempered with
B. concerned E. intensified by
C. agog F. precluded by

181. In an election cycle unmarred by a spate of television advertisements in which one candidate
drags the other through the mud, it is easy for voters on both sides of the political spectrum to think
they have (i) ________, and perhaps partially explains why each is (ii) ________a pronounced bias in news
reporting. One newspaper will discharge a fusillade of incriminating articles on one candidate, while
printing little that is (iii) _________ the other. A newspaper on the other side of the political spectrum
will respond in kind. The overall effect, then, is not much different from the television advertisements:
one candidate is the devil incarnate, the other a clear choice for national office.


A. reached an impasse D. similarly immune to G. averse to
B. scored a moral victory E. equally susceptible to H. approbatory of
C. been persecuted F. likely complicit in I. cognizant of

182. The scope of the entire work is (i)_______ ; the 120-page translation of the well-known classic
makes for a brisk jaunt, yet it is, in a sense, largely (ii)________ the magisterial commentary, which
accounts for well over 80% of the text found in the work.


A. unambitious D. on par with
B. deceptive E. preludial to
C. lacking F. discrepant with

183. However much the economist trumpeted his ____________, his accurate prediction of a major
downturn was not as ____________ as he led the public to believe; for years he had been prophesying
fiscal doom.


A. affluence D. uncanny
B. veracity E. unambiguous
C. prescience F. provident

184. The author, mocked by many for his simple, almost childlike prose, can at least not be begrudged
the distinction of writing with _________.

A. geniality
B. naivety
C. gusto
D. anonymity
E. lucidness

185. Many claim that the 19th Century institution of snake’s oil—the peddling of items that seldom live
up to their vaunted claims—is anything but moribund; one need only look so far as the Internet to see
that the tradition is ____________.

A. thriving
B. transient
C. peripheral
D. diminishing
E. counterfeit

186. Giacomo’s concerti, much like the composer himself, were a ____________ affair. Fits of passion
would, without warning, give way to sudden idylls, as though the composer had been trying to
____________ his inner conflicts. Only in his later works, which are far more abstract, does he eschew
trying to capture his inner states.


A. mercurial D. exorcise
B. rambling E. foreshadow
C. torrid F. mirror

187. For someone so ____________ in his delivery, Quentin was remarkably relaxed during his
presentation, any trace of affectation gone.

A. arbitrary
B. guileless
C. studied
D. fastidious
E. conceited

188. Cartwright has gone further than what is already (i) _______ —that the expression of genes is
dependent on social context. By introducing a relatively docile species of bee into the colony of a far
more aggressive species, he effected a change not even thought to be (ii) _______ for the species, given
its genotype: the docile bee, after six months in the hive, had become (iii) _______ .


A. well known D. possible G. virtually extinct
B. under investigation E. healthy H. unnecessarily
C. far afield F. necessary specialized
I. highly combative

189. Cheswick’s motives are forever ____________ by a guardedness so thoroughgoing as to make any
attempt to dissect his actions ____________.


A. checked D. unfit
B. tinged E. provisional
C. obscured F. futile

190. Parson Weems, George Washington’s preeminent biographer during the president’s life, is
responsible for spreading many of the ____________ we today accept as the unvarnished truth.

A. canards
B. assurances
C. disenchantments
D. enmities
E. certainties

191. The history of philosophy is one of (i) ________, in which each philosopher played his part by
positing a view that allowed little room for (ii)________. Rousseau concluded that only in a state of
nature is man truly free; Locke claimed that we are all blank slates waiting for the environment to
mold us to its fancy; and Hume believed unequivocally that reason is slave to the passions. One need
only peruse these writers’ works to see that some of these positions were even (iii) ________.


A. tidy categories D. nuance G. controversial
B. unsettled matters E. dogmatism H. provisional
C. abstruse speculation F. empiricism I. irreproachable

192. Whether the writer’s most recent work will ____________ his status as a great novelist is debatable;
that, with this work, he continues to create probing narratives that capture a country in the midst of
turmoil is unassailable.

A. alter
B. cement
C. degrade
D. concern
E. diminish

193. Mulcahy, in averring that most literary criticism has become so filled with abstruse jargon as to be
practically indecipherable to anyone save its practitioners, is himself (i) ___________: his main point will
be discernible only to the very community he seeks to (ii) ___________.


A. uncertain D. defend
B. complicit E. impugn
C. enlightened F. inform

194. The author’s name in shining lights—on the book jacket, that is—____________ the collective nature
of the enterprise: before hundreds of seasoned eyes even pore over a final copy, the author has had
many expert readers help fashion the novel from its very inception.

A. undermines
B. belies
C. informs
D. reaffirms
E. disambiguates

195. The public only had so much patience with Newman: his ____________ the government’s supposed
ineptitude had become so frequent that even his most ____________ supporters soon began to shift the
dial on their radios.


A. litanies of D. discerning
B. rebuttals of E. avid
C. epiphanies on F. contentious

196. Perkin’s wit, surprisingly ____________ by the prudishness of his time, may not have been nearly as
____________ had he lived in an era not so prone to ____________.


A. tempered D. comical G. blushing
B. overwhelmed E. restrained H. vacillation
C. untrammeled F. racy I. expression

197. It is ____________ that the short story, regardless of its acclaim amongst certain members of the
literati, has ____________ amongst the public. All the more so, because the novel, in some ways an
inherently more demanding form, continues to be popular amongst lay readers who apparently
subscribe to the trite credo that bigger is better.


A. unsurprising D. languished
B. encouraging E. burgeoned
C. telling F. imploded

198. That contemporary culture derides opera and ballet as elitist institutions actually (i) ______ with a
(ii) _____ they otherwise lack in the modern sensibility, suggesting that however hegemonic pop music
may become its adherents feel compelled to (iii) ______ it.


A. agrees D. vision G. dismiss
B. invests them E. stateliness H. embrace
C. is at odds F. significance I. defend

199. There is nothing more ____________ for first time writers than to see that their cherished ideas are
actually far less ____________ than they had imagined. Often a publisher, or even a friend, will point out
that another writer already captured the same plot twist, or created an almost identical fictional
world. This feeling stings even greater when the publication of the neophyte writer’s work ____________
that of the more popular author; apparently the public often erroneously believes that the lesser
known writer’s work is derivative.


A. galling D. novel G. belittles
B. bracing E. rigorous H. precedes
C. alluring F. precedented I. elaborates upon

200. Monarchial reigns ____________ tended to be more ____________, dynastically speaking, than those
royal courts in which palace machinations had not become a quotidian affair. In the latter, a pall of
complacency would fall over the kingdom so that if suddenly there were an earl with an axe to grind,
so to speak, his path to usurpation would be ____________.

Blank (i)
Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. marked by intrigue
B. characterized by D. imperiled G. largely unobstructed
hubris E. volatile H. a treacherous one
C. weakened by attrition F. robust I. hardly assured

201. Astrophysicists are _________ the fact that the Milky Way is a totally unremarkable galaxy, since this
very ordinariness affords them a template with which to make viable extrapolations concerning the
structure and dynamics of many other galaxies—both known and unknown.

A. skeptical about
B. crestfallen over
C. heartened by
D. surprised by
E. apprehensive about

202. The bias for ______________ has crept into the current school of physics: superstring theory provides
such an all-encompassing—yet tidy—packaging of current streams of thought—quantum physics and
Einstein’s theory of relativity, among them—that many scientists have been beguiled by the simplicity
of the theory into blithely discounting the paucity of data.

A. thoroughness
B. inconsistency
C. elegance
D. aesthetics
E. artifice

203. In regards to the polarity of the nation’s political biases, the media peddles the same tired
____________, hoping that the repetition of a conventional idea will lead people to passively accept it.

A. auguries
B. epiphanies
C. tropes
D. anodynes
E. deceptions

204. Unless the current practice of deforestation is ____________ by no less than a global committee, the
world’s biodiversity will continue to ____________, robbing posterity of potential pharmacological
breakthroughs.


A. entailed D. ebb
B. championed E. flourish
C. sanctioned F. ameliorate

205. ____________, she suddenly became ____________ , even conspiratorial, as the detectives, who had been
stymied and had all but given up on extracting an iota of evidence from her, took sedulous notes.


A. Unbidden D. sullen
B. Aghast E. contentious
C. Surprised F. forthcoming

206. Much of the consumer protection movement is predicated on the notion that routine exposure to
seemingly _______________ products can actually have long-term deleterious consequences.

A. outdated
B. banal
C. litigious
D. virulent
E. benign

207. Carefully couching his words in the most diplomatic language possible, so even those (i)
______________ to his cause could hardly construe his words as a (ii) ______________ , the city councilman
offered an ultimatum to the (iii) ______________ group of protesters camped outside the City Hall.


A. indisposed D. panegyric G. defeated
B. sympathetic E. broadside H. querulous
C. impartial F. prognostication I. dishonest

208. The burgeoning environmental movements of the middle part of last century are seen as signal
achievements, ushering in an age of both greater environmental consciousness and reforms to stem
the damage already done, and such a view (i) ______. But what is lost in all these paeans is that the
seeds for why many today continue to doubt climate change were planted in the prognostications of
the 1960s, which were so dire and overblown that the fact there was not a catastrophic rising of sea
levels by the 1980s had many (ii) _____ . Now that glaciologists have documented vast ice shelves in
Antarctica calving off into the sea, it is not surprising that (iii) _____ are prone to thinking, “We’ve
heard this before.”

D. questioning the very
A. has been largely movement itself G. impassioned advocates
destructive E. trumpeting the H. hardened skeptics
B. is not necessarily breakthroughs I. climate scientists
incorrect F. criticizing opponents
C. is highly misleading of environmentalism

209. Because the defendant expressed very little ____________ for his heinous crime, the judge meted out
a(n) ____________ sentence.


A. contempt D. charitable
B. contrition E. severe
C. apathy F. peculiar

210. To pundits the author’s latest work was ____________ ; with so few people purchasing the book, this
critical reception proved to be ____________.


A. disastrous D. poignant
B. puzzling E. unnoticeable
C. captivating F. ironic

211. Amongst Irish-American playwrights of the early 20th Century, her work stood out as a(n)
____________, not so much because of its striking originality but because other contemporaneous works
tended to be ____________ on most social issues. Her plays, by contrast, allowed the audience to come to
its own conclusions, a technique that foreshadowed much of 20th century theatre.


A. exemplar D. unyielding
B. precursor E. dogmatic
C. anomaly F. reticent

212. That an author can become (i) _________ adverse criticism does not necessarily bode well for that
individual’s artistic development, since even the most stinging reviews are often meted out in the
implicit hope that an author will seek, in future works, to (ii) __________ his or her writerly
transgressions.


A. aware of D. mitigate
B. encouraged by E. broadcast
C. inured to F. hide

213. Though mostly unknown, the 19th century novels of Edward Bulwer-Lytton are subject to an
inescapable ________, since today the author, for the opening line—“It was a dark and stormy night”—
has been awarded the distinction of an annual contest, in which the winning entrant is the one who
concocts a faux opening line that is by turns the most groan-inducing and prosaic.

A. relevance
B. trepidation
C. banality
D. opprobrium
E. commemoration

214. Far less ____________ than her predecessor, the new superintendent remained ____________, even on
issues in which some form of compromise was expected.


A. timid D. intransigent
B. accommodating E. debonair
C. implacable F. stolid

215. The latest biography on J. R. Oppenheimer, in attempting to dispel the pervasive notion that he
was a(n) ____________, only ____________ such a view: seemingly every one of Oppenheimer’s quirks is
related with gleeful fondness.


A. egomaniac D. overturns
B. eccentric E. perpetuates
C. reactionary F. invalidates

216. Those who value thoughtful prose are turned off by the self-help movement, not so much because
of the inefficacy of its counsel (it does sometimes live up to its name) but because it speaks in ________.

A. half-truths
B. platitudes
C. riddles
D. undertones
E. pejoratives

217. The theoretical physicist, despite his mathematical training, oftentimes must deal with questions
that fall under the realm of the philosophical. Nonetheless, he will often marshal formulae when they
serve to ____________ a theory, notwithstanding the fact that many such theories are not ____________
empirical analysis, as those theories deal with questions whose answers may ultimately be
unknowable.


A. undermine D. unrelated to
B. conflate E. commensurate with
C. undergird F. amenable to

218. Cave paintings recently found hundreds of feet below the surface in southern France suggest that
prehistoric man viewed animals as central to both his rituals and existence. Whether this focus results
from the idolization or subjugation remains ____________ — for every painting of a beast riddled with
spears, there exists another in which man is depicted in a far more ____________ role, arms outspread as
though in obeisance.


A. incontrovertible D. diminutive
B. equivocal E. deferential
C. inconsequential F. sacerdotal

219. Fenton’s motives were clearly ____________ , yet Fenton tried, in the most ingratiating way, to
____________ his innocence.


A. aboveboard D. maintain
B. base E. dismiss
C. overt F. hide

220. Meticulous to a fault, Sarah is often considered __________; unless, of course, her consummate eye
for detail works in one’s favor.

A. obstinate
B. precocious
C. wayward
D. perfunctory
E. persnickety

221. The travelogue is a thorny genre, even for seasoned writers, for one must ______________ a curious
balance between inspired navel-gazing and reportage with a cosmopolitan slant.

A. boast
B. deconstruct
C. effect
D. inhibit
E. forsake

222. Jacques was a born ____________ : he would often regale those around him with stories from his
fascinating childhood.

A. dissembler
B. iconoclast
C. raconteur
D. sentimentalist
E. maverick

223. Until Walt Whitman, there was no ______________ American voice in poetry; true, the poems of
Emerson are highly esteemed today, but the prosody of those poems are not altogether different from
that of England’s Lake Poets.

A. influential
B. celebrated
C. solitary
D. distinct
E. general

224. The public education sector typically sees an increase in enrollment during a recession, as parents
are less likely to opt for costly private schools, a trend that sounds like a(n) (i) _________ for
unemployed teachers. Yet what often happens during a recession is that those who are chronically
unemployed (ii) _________ the education profession, thereby saturating the market with teachers and
even leading longtime educators, particularly those not protected by unions, to lose their jobs.


A. boon D. enter
B. alarm E. disregard
C. catastrophe F. praise

225. A fungus toxic to amphibians will be ____________ to the already ____________ African Foam-nest Tree
Frog, a species endemic to Central Africa. Due to deforestation, its numbers have long been dwindling.


A. noteworthy D. imperiled
B. disastrous E. endemic
C. unrecognizable F. flourishing

226. Writing well is not so much a matter of inspiration as it is (i)______________; just as the scientist
toiling away in an attic, or the athlete training even in inhospitable conditions, a writer too must be
(ii)______________.


A. forethought D. candid
B. perseverance E. yielding
C. carelessness F. tenacious

227. A common refrain amongst music listeners today is that so few viable new genres have sprouted
up in the past decade; yet they all too easily discount musicians whose output is a(n)______ of other
styles, as though no previous genre ever borrowed from several preexisting genres.

A. consideration
B. dismissal
C. repudiation
D. caricature
E. amalgam

228. With all the trappings of a “successful” novelist, Farminghouse will most likely experience a(n)
_______ fame: his hackneyed plot devices might be covered up by rollicking action, but such theatrics
will likely wear thin in the eyes of posterity.

A. belated
B. ephemeral
C. enduring
D. deserved
E. predetermined

229. At first inspired by anything but a practical solution to its pressing budget issues, the committee,
after a series of blunders, finally opted for a more ____________ approach.

A. profligate
B. comprehensive
C. pragmatic
D. roundabout
E. emulative

230. Based on a spate of hospitable planets--or Goldilocks planets, as scientists affectionately dub
them--recently found orbiting the stars of three distinct solar systems, astronomers have been able to
____________ the number of earth-like planets in the universe, a figure much higher than previously
estimated.

A. insinuate
B. extrapolate
C. intuit
D. disprove
E. indicate

231. Spending five minutes in the sun will most likely have a(n) ____________ effect on one’s skin;
spending fifteen minutes, on the other hand, can lead to burning and, over time, fine wrinkles.

A. harmful
B. demonstrable
C. enduring
D. indeterminate
E. benign

232. Some of today’s tech CEO’s are spoken of in the press and on social media in such ________ tones
that they have taken on a nearly messianic quality, entrepreneurs following their every move like a
gaggle of disciples.

A. thoughtful
B. hushed
C. reverential
D. ambivalent
E. persistent

233. Even in his advanced years, Winston Churchill maintained a ____________ greater than that of
someone half his age.

A. candidness
B. vitality
C. maturity
D. lethargy
E. wisdom

234. An increase in blood pressure, by itself, does not indicate that a person is at greater risk for a
myocardial infarction; there must be a(n) ______________ of symptoms before a doctor comes to such a
conclusion.

A. superfluity
B. cluster
C. outbreak
D. paucity
E. remission

235. The fact that scientists are reluctant to share recognition with those scientists whom they are
unaffiliated with often accounts for the lack of _________ research institutions conducting large-scale
studies.

A. familiarity with
B. discussion within
C. collaboration between
D. friction among
E. discord in

236. Paul spoke ____________ and would stop and start frequently, at times uttering nothing more than a
few unintelligible syllables.

A. cogently
B. arrogantly
C. haltingly
D. ceaselessly
E. noiselessly

237. With his support ____________, the candidate announced his decision to ____________ his election
campaign, rather than carry on what would only be a futile struggle.


A. waning D. end
B. steadying E. boycott
C. surging F. petition

238. Tossing about in a tempest, the fishing vessel sent a message that was so ____________ as to be
incomprehensible.

A. urgent
B. bleak
C. elaborate
D. prominent
E. garbled

239. At times ____________ , she could just as suddenly become ____________, a change in mood that was
favorable yet so unpredictable as to be jarring.


A. affable D. aloof
B. morose E. selfish
C. magnanimous F. jubilant

240. The professor’s ____________ demeanor not only made others reluctant to approach her, but also
____________ the intellectual growth that comes from the ____________ of ideas.


A. cheerful D. limited G. repudiation
B. meek E. invited H. interchange
C. disdainful F. facilitated I. repression

241. The gossip columnist’s ____________ was ____________ the number of her published columns – the
more articles she wrote, the more untruths she spread.


A. calumny D. commensurate with
B. ardor E. inverse to
C. flattery F. unconnected to

242. Just as consummate chess players must hold in their minds the positions of each piece on the
board, and know too the ramifications of each move, so must skilled politicians have an awareness of
the choices at their ____________ and the ability to anticipate the ____________ of their actions.


A. perusal D. renown
B. disposal E. consequences
C. dispensation F. direction

243. Many professions have their respective____________, a unique vocabulary, which, to the uninitiated,
can oftentimes seem downright inscrutable.

A. ethos
B. jargon
C. code
D. downsides
E. elixir

244. Vast swathes of suburbia have turned into a ____________: homeowners, unable to pay their
mortgages, have simply left their domiciles, creating a veritable graveyard of empty houses.

A. bonanza
B. defection
C. necropolis
D. monument
E. haven

245. Despite a(n) ____________ beginning, the election campaign quickly devolved into ____________and
acrimony, with each side casting aspersions.


A. auspicious D. capitulation
B. turbulent E. calumny
C. publicized F. serenity

246. Long the bane of many a traveler, the anopheles mosquito may soon cease to be an intolerable
nuisance — scientists are working to completely ____________ the species, by preventing its eggs from
ever hatching.

A. rehabilitate
B. inoculate
C. desiccate
D. eradicate
E. disservice

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