Drill 10 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 10) 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. Early grammarians often judged English word order by Latin standards, but modern linguists point out that English syntax is ______ Latin syntax: the two languages organize clauses by entirely different principles.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) The colon explains that the two languages organize clauses by entirely different principles, so English syntax is distinct from Latin's. (D) equivalent to asserts the sameness that the different-principles clause denies. (B) derived from and (C) modeled on both claim English descends from or imitates Latin, a stronger historical relationship than mere difference and not what the sentence supports.
Question 2. The cathedral's flying buttresses are often praised as ornament, but they are in fact ______: without them the high stone walls could not bear the outward thrust of the vaulted roof.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) The colon explains that the walls could not bear the outward thrust without the buttresses, so they are structural, not mere ornament. (A) ornamental restates the very view the 'but, in fact' turn corrects. (B) redundant would mean dispensable, the reverse of indispensable. (C) precarious speaks to how stable something is, not whether it does load-bearing work.
Question 3. The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables.
The hardest stroke of fate for Hepzibah to endure was Clifford's invincible distaste for her appearance. Her features were harsh with age and grief, and there was no help for it; the instinctive lover of the Beautiful was fain to turn away his eyes.
As used in the text, what does the word "invincible" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (B) The passage stresses that there was no help for it and that Clifford cannot keep from turning his eyes away, so his distaste is one he cannot conquer: insurmountable. (A) courageous draws on the heroic sense of 'invincible,' but here the word modifies a feeling, not a warrior. (C) hostile recasts the aversion as aggression, which the gentle, pitying tone does not support. (D) concealed has nothing to anchor it, and his visibly turning away shows the distaste is expressed, not hidden.
Question 4. Tide pools were long dismissed as biologically ______, yet a single square meter can shelter dozens of species competing for the same narrow band of rock.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) The 'yet' pivots from a supposed scarcity of life to dozens of species, so the dismissed view was that tide pools were biologically impoverished. (A) isolated concerns separation, not abundance. (B) uniform concerns sameness, not richness. (C) fragile speaks to durability, a different claim.
Question 5. The mycologist cautioned that a mushroom's surface color is a ______ guide to its identity, since the same species can shade from white to brown as it ages and dries.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (C) Because one species can range from white to brown, color leads the observer astray, making it a treacherous guide. (A) reliable is the inversion the 'since' clause rules out. (B) detailed and (D) preliminary describe thoroughness or order, neither of which is the point about being misled.