Sentence Completion Practice Flashcards
This deck builds the habit of good process and reinforces core vocabulary knowledge. Several passes with this deck and your errors on sentence completion should diminish toward zero. This first completion practice deck is a little easier than the second.
His assigned 60-page graduate thesis was a ________ task, since he’d never written a paper a quarter the size.
A) odious
B) prolonged
C) jocular
D) daunting
E) sober
D) daunting
Clues: never written, a quarter the size
David, wanting to find Mr. Rankeillor’s house, is willing to ________ a stranger on the street to help him identify it.
A) provoke
B) castigate
C) accost
D) interrogate
E) irritate
C) accost
Clues: find house, stranger
When Billy ________ the vat of soup and expects a harsh punishment, the tough master-at-arms merely ________ him in a way that puzzles the foretop man.
A) dislogdes…hastens
B) overturns…chides
C) upsets…chastises
D) reconnoiters…admonishes
E) topples…promulgates
B) overturns…chides
Clues: vat of soup, expects punishment, merely
The professor of medieval studies had a most ________ collection of office furniture selected from Danish, Spanish, Italian and Hungarian styles of ________ and even a piece from the Ikea catalogue.
A) comprehensive…authenticity
B) variegated…morbidity
C) eclectic…antiquity
D) scintillating…carpentry
E) exquisite…novelty
C) eclectic…antiquity
Clues: medieval, collection, Danish, Spanish, Italian, Hangarian, Ikea
The law school professor clearly ________ the boundaries of First Amendment rights as pertaining to ________ and slander.
A) demarcated…rumors
B) explored…slights
C) blurred…calumny
D) delineated…libel
E) deprecated…reputations
D) delineated…libel
Clues: boundaries, First Amendment
Though he undoubtedly shared the defensive plans at West Point to an enemy commander, Gen. Benedict Arnold certainly saw his actions as less ________ than the treason ________ in his court-martial.
A) problematic…cited
B) olfactory…implied
C) perfidious…alleged
D) nefarious…posed
E) notorious…defamed
C) perfidious…alleged
Clues: though, enemy commander, treason
The prisoners of war became ________ at ________ the rules of the camp, so that tunnels could be dug for escape.
A) pliant…molding
B) deft..circumventing
C) adroit…overslawing
D) adept…proscribing
E) obstreperous…respecting
B) deft…circumventing
Clues: prisoners, so that, tunnels, for escape
Catching and holding a frog from the water is challenging because its ________ skin allows it to slip away from a person’s grasp.
A) unctuous
B) lithe
C) pithy
D) malleable
E) arid
A) unctuous
Clues: catching, frog, challenging, because, skin, slip away
Though Rachel had just been informed by her mother that her dear dog was dead, she managed her job with remarkable ________ so that no one realized that she was heartbroken.
A) callousness
B) stoicism
C) nubility
D) equanimity
E) aplomp
D) equanimity
Clues: Though, dear dog dead, managed her job, no one realized, heartbroken
Since no one saw the crime committed, the physical evidence which identified the accused was the ________ of the prosecution’s case.
A) canopy
B) basement
C) crowbar
D) rudder
E) linchpin
E) linchpin
Clues: Since, no one saw, physical evidence, case
A successful teacher must maintain a good ________ with his or her students; they must understand and trust one another.
A) didacticism
B) deference
C) rapport
D) ingenue
E) verisimilitude
C) rapport
Clues: successful teacher, maintain, good understand and trust
When Jarmel found the Mirror of Happenstance, he could see all the moments of his day at rising and avoid those ________ that would bring him unhappiness.
A) serendipities
B) vicissitudes
C) carnivores
D) blandishments
E) probabilities
B) vicissitudes
Clues: see all moments of the day, avoid
Skipper and Brick shared ________ each other that Maggie found threatening to her marriage.
A) an ambivalence for
B) a symbiosis with
C) an affinity for
D) an animosity for
E) a bathyshpere with
C) an affinity for
Clues: each other, found threatening, marriage
Without a doubt, the ________ of his life occurred when his drug addiction caused in rapid ________ the loss of his business, his marriage, and, from an overdose, almost his life.
A) prophecy…sequence
B) nadir…succession
C) apex…confluence
D) perogee…momentum
E) stasis…episodes
B) nadir…succession
Clues: loss, business, marriage, overdose, life
The witch, instead of being a ________ crone, was a striking beauty, and Bernard thought that maybe he’d been totally misled as to the nature of the ________.
A) wizened…species
B) grotesque…genre
C) sagacious…breed
D) defaced…genus
E) unsightly…spectre
A) wizened…species
Clues: witch, instead, beauty, nature
Convinced that her children had robbed her of a career on Broadway, Sylvia began to display an open _______ toward those whom she should naturally love and nurture.
A) ambivalence
B) antipathy
C) disregard
D) neglect
E) apathy
B) antipathy
Clues: robbed her, should, love and nuture
Dr. Kolsky’s ________ manner demonstrated his wide knowledge of physics as well as metaphysical philosophy, and made him a well-respected member of the prestigious university’s faculty.
A) opulent
B) equestrian
C) respective
D) erudite
E) cantankerous
D) erudite
Clues: wide knowledge, member prestigious, faculty
Having just won the highest ________ in acting, with offers on the table for movies that paid really well and gave her a chance to work with the best directors, she was at the ________ of her career.
A) notoriety…pinnacle
B) accolade….zenith
C) bauble…nadir
D) commendation…midpoint
E) demerit…apex
B) accolade…zenith
Clues: highest, offers, paid well, best directors
Though Miquel had excellent skills in soccer, his constant boasting, _________ and other _________ behaviors convinced the coaches that he threatened team chemistry and kept him off the varsity squad.
A) harranging…mature
B) bellowing…infantile
C) bragging…competitive
D) grousing…fractious
E) bleating…amusing
D) grousing…fractious
Clues: boasting, kept him off the squad
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once ________ upon hearing his friend, Ralph Abernathy, introduce him that it was so ________ he wondered who he was talking about.
A) gesticulated…cross
B) joked…laudatory
C) punned…laborious
D) quipped…enamored
E) posited…confused
B) joked…laudatory
Clues: introduce him, wondered who he was talking about
Hester Prynne runs afoul of the ________ edict against adultery and thus is sentenced to wear the red letter.
A) pelted
B) ornery
C) proscribed
D) antiquated
E) concomitant
C) proscribed
Clues: edict
George’s natural modesty meant that all ________ he perceived as undeserved.
A) criticism
B) promises
C) platitudes
D) superlatives
E) adulation
E) adulation
Clues: modesty, undeserved
Roderick Usher, much ________ by the illness of his sister, Madeleine, retired to his room for the afternoon and returned to me at dinner somewhat ________.
A) enervated…refreshed
B) dilapidated…dismal
C) mollified…rejuvenated
D) frayed…glutted
E) anxious…fatigued
A) enervated…refreshed
Clues: illness of his sister, retired to his room
While Jared’s eyes rolled throughout the ________ movie, he wondered at the taste of his friend, Luna, as she sat dabbing her eyes at the sentimental ________.
A) maudlin…hoke
B) insipid…protagonist
C) dramatic…schlock
D) riveting…drivel
E) caustic…plot
A) maudlin…hoke
Clues: rolled his eyes, wondered at taste, dabbing her eyes, sentimental