Drill 6 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 6) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Hard Words in Context. It contains 5 original questions developed by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.
Hard SAT Words in Context questions ask you to choose the word or phrase that most precisely completes the sentence. The answer is rarely an obscure word; difficulty comes from three plausible distractors that all nearly fit, with one signal in the sentence pinning the correct choice.
Question 1. Once dismissed as a fringe hypothesis, the theory has become so widely accepted that it now seems ______ to question it at all.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (C) 'So widely accepted that it now seems ______ to question it' calls for a word capturing how taboo dissent has become. Heretical means violating accepted doctrine, which fits an idea now treated as orthodoxy. (A) premature means too early, unrelated to a settled consensus. (B) expedient means convenient, which does not describe the cost of questioning. (D) prudent means wise, the reverse of how questioning is now regarded.
Question 2. The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.
As used in the text, what does the word "punctuality" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (A) The joke depends on reading punctuality as the habit of being on time, which the speaker, 'always late on principle,' treats as a waste. Promptness is that on-time habit. (B) precision means exactness, a different virtue the line does not invoke. (C) etiquette means social manners broadly, wider than the specific matter of arriving on time. (D) frugality means thrift with money, unrelated to time-keeping.
Question 3. The biographer refused to ______ her subject: she recorded his cruelties as plainly as his charm, declining to soften a man history had already half-canonized.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The signal is 'declining to soften a man history had already half-canonized,' so the verb she refuses must mean to glorify him further. Lionize means to treat as a celebrity or hero. (A) vilify means to defame, the opposite of softening, and she does record his cruelties. (C) chronicle means to record, which is precisely what she does do, so she would not refuse it. (D) scrutinize means to examine closely, again something her plain recording embraces rather than refuses.
Question 4. The verdict did nothing to ______ the public's anger; if anything, the lenient sentence sharpened the outrage that the trial had been meant to settle.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) 'Did nothing to ______ the public's anger; if anything... sharpened the outrage' tells us the verdict failed to calm a feeling it should have eased. Assuage means to soothe or lessen. (A) vindicate means to justify, which takes a claim or person as its object, not an emotion to be reduced. (B) articulate means to express clearly, unrelated to calming anger. (C) provoke is the inversion: the sentence says the verdict didn't reduce anger and in fact heightened it, so the blank names the soothing it failed at, not the provoking it accomplished.
Question 5. What looked at first like ______ generosity turned out to be carefully calculated: every gift the patron made was timed to secure a vote he needed.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The contrast is 'looked at first like ______ generosity' versus 'carefully calculated... to secure a vote,' so the false first impression was of giving with no ulterior motive. Disinterested means free of self-interest. (A) ostentatious means showy, which a calculated gift could still be, so it sets up no contrast with the reveal. (C) lavish means extravagant, again compatible with the scheming and not opposed to it. (D) reluctant means unwilling, which contradicts 'generosity' outright.