Sentence Completion Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The answer is the more I like it: The longer I live here, the more I like it.

This is the double comparative, 'the + comparative ..., the + comparative ...', which shows two things increasing together, as in the sooner, the better. Once the first half begins 'The longer', the second half must also begin with 'the' and a comparative.

'I like it more' and 'more I like it' break the paired pattern by dropping 'the', and 'I like more it' also has the wrong word order, putting 'more' between the verb and its object.

Answer: D

The key to the correct choice is in the word though, which indicates that the missing word must convey a sense which is the opposite of the phrase 'having certain characteristics in common', Among the choices, diverse (meaning various of differing in qualities), is the most suitable answer. The sentence now means that though people ask diverse questions, there are some common characteristics among them.

Answer: D

The second part of the sentence says that anyone who reads the ambassador's papers slowly and attentively will be richly repaid. The fact that one should read the papers slowly and attentively for getting the full benefit from them implies that what is contained in them is difficult material.

Among the choices, 'The ambassador's papers are not easy reading' is what brings out this meaning clearly and is the answer.

If his papers are not valuable or insightful reading, then no one can be richly repaid by reading them. So, (B) and (C) are wrong. The phrase 'petty reading' is not appropriate for an ambassador's papers.

Answer: D

We can surmise from the sentence that Maroon societies are African groups. The sentence says that their culture has not remained static at the seventeenth- century level, but has been adapted creatively to their changing lives.

The missing verb must therefore be a synonym of this italicized phrase. Among the choices, it is modified which has a similar meaning and is the answer.

Answer: B

The use of the conjunction although indicates an implied contrast within the sentence. The latter part of the sentence says that, when tempered with other elements, the substance referred to could be stored safely in metal containers. So, the first part should mean that the normal property of the substance is to corrode metal containers. Among the choices, it is only the word caustic that has this meaning, and is the answer.

Answer: A

How can you describe the fact that a person, who grew up in a region rich in American Indian culture, did not develop her interest in Native American art until adulthood, but later wrote a very sensitive and authoritative book on it? Not as satisfactory, or doubtful, or concerned. The only appropriate word among the given choices is ironic.

Answer: D

The word ironic signifies a contradiction of ideas within the sentence, and the conjunction while indicates that the characteristics of the good and evil people are being contrasted. Therefore, if the good people are often dull, the evil people must be having a characteristics which is the opposite of being dull. Among the given choices, it is only the word fascinating that has such a meaning, and is the answer.

Answer: A

Correct answer: commodities

The sentence rests on the analogy ecology, like economics, so the missing word has to work in both fields. It also has to fit valuable and to be something that moves through a network of producers and consumers.

Commodities does all three: economics moves goods, ecology moves matter and energy through food chains, and both are described in the language of production and consumption. Nutrients is true of ecology alone and so breaks the analogy the sentence is built on; dividends and communications belong to neither network.

Answer: D

The use of the conjunction 'but' implies the existence of a contradiction within the sentence. Monomania means obsession, to the point of madness, with a single task or in any person. But the use of the conjunction but implies that the author of the sentence does not consider Murray's monomania as harmful. So the missing word must have a positive connotation. We can therefore eliminate the choices same (meaning cowardly), tendentious (meaning dishonest) and meretricious (meaning goudy). The statement "his innocuous (meaning harmless) one" does not make any sense. The phrase, "His monomania must be regarded as a beneficent or at least an innocuous one" makes eminent sense. So, (D) is the answer.

Answer: C

Something which is needed for life, even if it is in extremely small quantities, cannot be described as destructive to life, or insignificant to life, or extraneous to life. It can only be described as being essential to life. So (C) is the answer.