Even though trees, flowers, and bushes may look different, they are actually very _____.
Answer: B
It is similar.
Even though sets up a contrast, so the second half must oppose looking different. Distinct, unique and original all restate the difference instead of contradicting it.
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The job was _____; it only took one day to finish.
Answer: C
Correct answer: simple
The semicolon signals that the second clause explains the first, and it only took one day to finish is evidence about difficulty, not about interest. A job finished in a day is an easy one.
Impossible contradicts the fact that it was finished at all. Boring and exciting describe how the work felt, which the evidence given cannot support either way.
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Unlike the _____ water conditions common at northern beaches, southern beaches are relatively _____.
Answer: D
Correct answer: violent … calm
Unlike demands a contrast, so the two blanks must be opposites, and both must describe water conditions.
Only violent … calm is a genuine pair of opposites. Pure … clean and sublime … elevated-style pairings are near-synonyms, which the sentence structure forbids; salty … cool and windy … shallow name unrelated properties, so no contrast is set up at all.
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Nina usually gets good grades, but her score on the last test was _____.
Answer: D
Correct answer: poor
But reverses the direction of the sentence. The first clause establishes that Nina usually gets good grades, so the last test must have gone the other way.
Excellent would agree with the first clause rather than contrast with it, leaving but with nothing to do. Common and competitive do not describe how well a score turned out.
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The house was built using _____ materials: wood, steel, concrete, brick, stone, and tile.
Answer: B
Correct answer: a variety of
The colon introduces a list, so the blank must summarise what that list shows. Wood, steel, concrete, brick, stone and tile are six different kinds of material, and what they have in common is precisely their difference.
Very few is contradicted by the length of the list. Cheap and weak would each have to be true of steel and stone as well as of wood, and nothing in the sentence supports that.
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Some plants need full sunlight, while others _____ partial exposure to the sun.
Answer: A
Correct answer: require
While others sets up a parallel, so the verb in the second clause should match need in the first, with only the amount of sunlight changing. Require is that match.
Prefer and choose soften a necessity into a liking, which breaks the parallel and also credits plants with a choice; obtain describes what a plant gets rather than what it needs, so the contrast between full and partial sunlight is lost.
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Some critics maintain that Tennyson’s poetry is uneven, ranging from the ____ to the ____.
Answer: A
Correct answer: trite - inspired
The key word is uneven. Poetry described as ranging from one extreme to another must be given two words that are opposites, and one of them must be unfavourable.
Trite (stale, over-familiar) and inspired supply exactly that range. The other three pairs are synonym pairs - succinct/laconic both mean brief, sublime/elevated both praise, vacuous/inane both condemn - and a range needs two ends, not one.
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The student was extremely foolhardy; he had the ____ to question the senior professor’s judgment.
Answer: B
Correct answer: temerity
Foolhardy means recklessly bold, and the semicolon tells you the second clause illustrates it. The blank therefore needs a noun for reckless boldness.
Temerity is precisely that. Trepidation is its opposite - fear - and someone afraid would not challenge a senior professor; wisdom contradicts foolhardy; and interest is too mild to explain why the behaviour is called foolish.
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The revolution in art has not lost its steam; it ____ on as fiercely as ever.
Answer: A
Correct answer: rages
Has not lost its steam and as fiercely as ever both insist on undiminished energy, so the verb must be a violent one.
Rages keeps that force. Trudges, meanders and ambles all describe slow or aimless movement, which would contradict the first half of the sentence rather than continue it.
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One ____ the new scheme is that it might actually ____ just those applicants that it was intended to encourage.
Answer: C
Correct answer: drawback of - daunt
The second blank is fixed by the ending: the scheme was intended to encourage applicants, so whatever it does to them instead must be the opposite of encouraging. Daunt is the only such word offered - stimulate, attract and induce all point the same way as encouragement.
Once the second blank is negative, the first must be too, and drawback of follows naturally. Highlight and feature would be at odds with an unwanted effect.
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