Sentence Completion
Advanced sentence completion practice for SAT, GMAT, MBA entrance and competitive exams. Tests vocabulary and contextual understanding.
Questions
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blank.
Although the passage of years has softened the initially hostile reaction to his poetry, even now only a few independent observers __________ his works.
- praise
- revile
- scrutinise
- criticise
- neglect
Directions: Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.
The legislators of 1563 realised the ____________ of trying to regulate the flow of labour without securing its reasonable remuneration, and so the second part of the statue dealt with establishing wages.
- intricacy
- anxiety
- futility
- necessity
- decadence
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The struggle of the generations is one of the obvious constants of human affairs; therefore, it may be presumptuous to suggest that the rivalry between young and old in western society during the current decade is ________ critical.
- perennially
- disturbingly
- uniquely
- archetypal
- captiously
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
Politeness is not a _________ attribute of human behaviors, but rather a central virtue, one whose very existence is increasingly being ____________ by the faddish requirement to “speak one’s mind.”
- superficial, threatened
- pervasive, undercut
- worthless, forestalled
- precious, repudiated
- trivial, affected
Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.
The new biological psychiatry does not deny the contributing role of psychological factors in mental illness, but posits that these factors may serve as a catalyst on existing physiological conditions and __________ such illness.
- disguise
- impede
- constrain
- precipitate
- consummate
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
It is to the novelist’s credit that all of the episodes in her novel are presented realistically; without any fanciful or playful __________ tricks.
- elucidation
- discrimination
- artlessness
- authenticity
- supernatural
Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blanks.
While Parker is very outspoken on issues she cares about, she is not _______; she concedes the ______ of opposing arguments when they expose weaknesses inherent in her own.
- fickle, validity
- arrogant, restraint
- fanatical, strength
- precipitate, incompatibility
- unyielding, speciousness
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Some customs travel well often, however, behavior that is considered the epitome of ________ at home is perceived as impossibly rude or, at the least, harmlessly bizarre abroad.
- novelty
- eccentricity
- urbanity
- coarseness
Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.
It comes as no surprise that societies have codes of behaviour; the character of the codes, on the other hand, can often be __________.
- predictable
- unexpected
- admirable
- explicit
- confusing
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
This final essay, its prevailing kindliness _________ by occasional flashes of savage irony, bespeaks the _______ character of the author.
- illuminated, imperturbable
- marred, dichotomous
- untainted, vindictive
- exemplified, chivalrous
- diluted, ruthless
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The influence of the Timaeus among early philosophical thinkers was _________, if only because it was the sole dialogue _________ in Europe for almost 1000 years.
- pervasive, available
- inestimable, suppressed
- unnoteworthy, abridged
- underestimated, studied
- circumscribed, translated
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
Nature’s energy efficiency often _________ human technology: despite the intensity of the light fire-flies produce, the amount of heat is negligible; only recently have humans developed chemical light-producing systems whose efficiency _______ the firefly’s system.
- engenders, manipulates
- reflects, simulates
- outstrips, rivals
- inhibits, matches
- determines, reproduces
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blank.
The modern age is a permissive one in which things can be said explicitly, but the old tradition of _______________ dies hard.
- garrulousness
- exaggeration
- excoriation
- bombast
- euphemism
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
While not completely nonplussed by the unusually caustic responses from members of the audience, the speaker was nonetheless visibly _________ by their lively criticism.
- humiliated
- discomfited
- deluded
- disgraced
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The powers and satisfactions of primeval people, though few and meager, were __________ their few and simple desires.
- simultaneous with
- commensurate with
- substantiated by
- circumscribed by
- ruined by
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Longdale and Stern discovered that mitochondria and chloroplasts __________ a long, identifiable sequence of DNA; such a coincidence could be _______ only by the transfer of DNA between the two systems.
- manufacture, accomplished
- reveal, repeated
- exhibit, determined
- share, explained
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
At several points in his discussion, Graves, in effect, _________ evidence when it does not support his argument, tailoring it to his needs.
- addresses
- creates
- alters
- suppresses
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
Number theory is rich in problems of an especially _________ sort: they are tantalisingly simple to state but ____________ difficult to solve.
- cryptic, deceptively
- spurious, equally
- abstruse, ostensibly
- elegant, rarely
- vexing, notoriously
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blank.
Queen Elizabeth I has quite correctly been called a ____________ of the arts because many artists received her patronage.
- connoisseur
- critic
- friend
- scourge
- judge
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
Ironically, the party leaders encountered no greater _________ their efforts to build a progressive party than the __________ of the progressives already elected to the legislature.
- support for, advocacy
- threat to, promise
- benefit from, success
- obstacle to, resistance
- praise for, reputation
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
Although ___________, almost self-effacing, in his private life, he displays in his plays and essays a strong ____________ publicity and controversy.
- conventional, interest in
- monotonous, reliance on
- shy, aversion towards
- retiring, penchant for
- evasive, impatience with
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
That many of the important laws of science were discovered during experiments designed to _________ other phenomenon suggests that experimental results are the _________ of inevitable natural forces rather than of planning.
- analyse, foundations
- disprove, predecessors
- alter, adjuncts
- illuminate, consequence
- verify, essence
Directions: Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.
The action and characters in a melodrama can be so immediately _________ that all observers can hiss the villain with an air of smug, but enjoyable ___________.
- spurned, boredom
- forgotten, condescension
- classified, self-righteousness
- plausible, guilt
- gripping, skepticism
Directions: The sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or set of words. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
An investigation that is ____________ can occasionally yield new facts, even notable ones, but typically the appearance of such facts is the result of a search in a definite direction.
- timely
- unguided
- consistent
- uncomplicated
- subjective