Drill 23 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
Review your answers above to learn from any mistakes.
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 23) 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. The musical passage avoids every clash a listener might brace for: each chord resolves into the next so smoothly that the whole sounds almost relentlessly ______.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The music 'avoids every clash' and each chord 'resolves into the next so smoothly,' which is harmonious agreement among tones: consonant. (A) discordant means clashing, the very thing the passage says is avoided, so it reverses the sense. (C) intricate describes complexity, but smoothness of resolution is not the same as intricacy. (D) sparse concerns how thin the texture is, which the sentence does not address; the point is concord, not scarcity.
Question 2. Gift-giving in the society was strictly ______: every present obliged the receiver to return one of equal value, so that no exchange ever stayed one-sided for long.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) Each gift 'obliged the receiver to return one of equal value' so nothing 'stayed one-sided,' which is mutual give-and-take: reciprocal. (A) hierarchical describes ranked levels, but the sentence is about returning gifts, not ranking people. (B) arbitrary means random or unprincipled, which cannot describe a system bound by a strict return rule. (C) rigid catches the strictness but says nothing about the back-and-forth that defines the practice, so it captures only half the signal.
Question 3. The following text is adapted from Anton Chekhov's 1899 story The Lady with the Dog, in Constance Garnett's translation.
Experience had taught him that with decent people, especially Moscow people, who were always slow to move and irresolute, every intimacy that at first seemed a light adventure grew in the end into a problem of extreme intricacy.
As used in the text, what does the word "irresolute" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) The Moscow people are 'always slow to move and irresolute,' and being slow to act is the mark of someone who cannot settle on a course: irresolute means indecisive. (D) impulsive is its near-opposite, since acting on impulse is the reverse of being slow to move. (B) timid suggests fearfulness, but hesitation here is about deciding, not about being afraid. (A) unsociable concerns a dislike of company, which the passage does not raise; the trait paired with 'slow to move' is wavering, not coldness.
Question 4. The glacier's retreat is ______ on any single day, yet decades of survey markers reveal that the ice has withdrawn nearly a mile since the first measurements.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) Nothing can be seen 'on any single day,' yet decades add up to nearly a mile, so the daily change is too small to notice: imperceptible. (B) abrupt means sudden, the opposite of a change invisible day to day. (C) cyclical would mean the ice advances and retreats in turns, but the markers show steady one-way withdrawal. (D) irregular claims an uneven pace, which the sentence neither states nor needs; the contrast is between an unseen daily rate and a large cumulative one.
Question 5. The collector's holdings defy any single label, mixing Dutch still lifes, Yoruba masks, and Pop prints with such ______ taste that no one school can claim her.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The holdings mix wildly different sources, from Dutch still lifes to Yoruba masks to Pop prints, so 'no one school can claim her,' which is drawing from many traditions at once: eclectic. (A) inventive praises originality, but assembling existing styles is selection, not invention. (C) austere means severe and stripped down, which runs counter to a wide, varied mix. (D) garish judges something as gaudy, a verdict on taste the sentence never passes; what is at stake is range, not vulgarity.