The type of word that is needed in some text completion questions may not be evident. If you are not sure whether a word should be positive or negative, you can look at the examples to see if there is a combination of words that work well together.
The _________ sign _________ the skier, and she turned around.It is not clear whether this sign is a positive one or a negative one--Does it encourage the skier to try a difficult trail again, or does it warn the skier of falling rocks? There are no context clues to help us out.
In this case, we do need to look at the answer choices to figure out which pair of words will make the most sense in this sentence.
- An occluded sign would probably cause confusion. It could make the skier curtail her trip, but it would not curtail the skier.
- An admonitory sign would warn the skier about a hazard, and that could deter her. So, B and D are possibilities.
- What about an auspicious sign? An auspicious sign would most likely encourage the skier, and none of the words relate to encouragement.
So, the answers are B and D.
A) lachrymose
B) palliative
C) maudlin
D) tactless
E) nuanced
F) maladroit
"I find that pretty amazing," said Joaquin Vieira, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and leader of the study. "These aren't normal galaxies. These galaxies [reveal star formation] at an extraordinary rate, when the universe was very young. I don't think anyone expected us to find galaxies like this so early in the history of the universe."
An international team of astronomers, whose work is reported in the March 14 issue of the journal Nature, found dozens of these galaxies with the National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded South Pole Telescope (SPT).
SPT is a 10-meter dish in Antarctica that surveys the sky in millimeter-wavelength light, whose waves fall between radio waves and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum.
The team then took a more detailed look using the new Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile's Atacama Desert, which is funded in part by NSF. ALMA is an international facility and is a partnership between North America, Europe and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
"The new observations represent some of ALMA's most significant scientific results yet," Vieira said. "We couldn't have done this without the combination of SPT and ALMA. ALMA is so sensitive, it is going to change our view of the universe in many different ways."
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127219
A) chronological history of the universe
B) a starburst's capacity for producing stars
C) potential functions of telescopes
D) how suns are produced
E) the need for cross-cultural collaborations
- Choice A focuses on time, and that was the major surprise in this study.
- Choice B focuses on the function of a starburst-- that was already known.
- Choice C focuses on technology that the team used.
- Choice D focuses on how a star is born (an actual one, not a celebrity)
- Choice E focuses on the cooperation between scientific organizations
A) The first sentence presents a theory, and the second sentence challenges it.
B) The first sentence states a fact, and the second sentence shares one opinion about its relevance.
C) The first sentence presents a theory, and the second presents new support for it.
D) The first sentence states a fact, and the second sentence elaborates on it.
E) The first sentence presents one theory, and the second sentence presents an alternative theory.
B. The second sentence does not share any info about the fact's relevance.
D. The second sentence does add additional info about this fact, so it elaborates on it.
A) Quantity A is greater.
B) Quantity B is greater.
C) The two quantities are equal.
D) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.