GRE Text Completion Practice Test 3
- Text Completion (Set 3)
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
This third set keeps the same format: one-blank items have five choices, and multi-blank items list complete combinations. Signal words such as "although," "despite," "by contrast" and a colon tell you whether a blank continues or reverses the idea around it.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
Your result
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- 0 wrong
- 0 blank
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Question 1
The negotiations, which many observers had expected to be ________, were in fact concluded within a single afternoon.
Correct answer: B
"In fact" introduces a surprise: talks finished in one afternoon, so observers must have expected them to drag on, which is what protracted means. Expeditious (quick) would make the outcome expected rather than surprising.
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Question 2
Her prose is admirably ________: she never uses three words where one will do.
Correct answer: E
Never using more words than necessary describes economical prose. Florid and ornate mean heavily decorated, discursive means rambling, and opaque means hard to understand.
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Question 3
The documentary's critics charged that its (i) ________ use of archival footage gave a (ii) ________ impression of events, since scenes from different years were edited together as though they had happened on a single day.
Correct answer: A
Cutting scenes from different years together as one day is a selective use of footage, and critics would say it creates a misleading impression. "Scrupulous" contradicts the charge, and "faithful," "accurate" and "balanced" contradict the criticism.
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Question 4
Despite his reputation for (i) ________, the director proved remarkably (ii) ________ on set, accepting suggestions from even the most junior crew members.
Correct answer: D
Accepting suggestions from junior crew shows he was receptive, and "despite" requires a reputation for the opposite, intransigence (refusal to compromise). "Flexibility" or "humility" removes the contrast, and "dictatorial" or "imperious" contradicts accepting suggestions.
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Question 5
The chemist's early findings, dismissed at the time as ________, have since been confirmed by more sensitive instruments.
Correct answer: C
Findings that were "dismissed" and only later "confirmed" must have been considered false at first, which is what spurious means. Seminal, corroborated, prescient and definitive are all positive judgments nobody would use to dismiss a finding.
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Question 6
In the nineteenth century the region's economy was largely (i) ________, depending on a handful of crops; today, by contrast, it is (ii) ________, and no single industry employs more than a tenth of the workforce. This shift has made the region far less (iii) ________ to a collapse in any one market.
Correct answer: E
Depending on a few crops is a monolithic (uniform) economy; "by contrast," today no industry dominates, so it is diversified. Spreading activity across many industries makes a region less vulnerable to one market's collapse; "less immune" or "less resistant" reverses the logic.
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Question 7
Although the treaty was hailed as a breakthrough, its provisions were so ________ that each signatory could interpret them as it wished.
Correct answer: A
If every signatory can read the provisions its own way, they must be vague, and nebulous means unclear or ill-defined. Explicit and stringent provisions would leave little room for interpretation.
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Question 8
The professor's lectures, once (i) ________ to the point of tedium, have become (ii) ________ since she began organizing them around open questions rather than settled facts.
Correct answer: B
"To the point of tedium" requires a negative first word such as pedantic (overly focused on small details), and the change toward open questions suggests they became engaging. "Soporific" (sleep-inducing) and "monotonous" do not show any change from tedium.
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Question 9
Few politicians are as ________ as the mayor, who has changed her position on the stadium three times this year alone.
Correct answer: D
Changing positions three times in a year is vacillating, wavering between opinions. Steadfast and dogmatic describe the opposite, an unchanging position.
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Question 10
The museum's new wing is striking but hardly (i) ________: its glass façade (ii) ________ several buildings that the same architect completed a decade earlier.
Correct answer: E
The colon explains why the wing is "hardly" something: its façade echoes (repeats) the architect's earlier buildings, so it is hardly original. "Hardly derivative" would praise its originality, which the echoing contradicts.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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