Drill 12 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 12) 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 lexicographer warned that dictionaries are ______ rather than prescriptive: they record how speakers actually use words, not how an academy decrees they should.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The colon contrasts recording how speakers actually use words against decreeing how they should, which is exactly descriptive as opposed to prescriptive. (C) normative names the rule-setting role the sentence places on the other side of the contrast, so it is the reverse of the answer. (A) comprehensive concerns coverage. (D) impartial raises bias, which the sentence is not drawing.
Question 2. The new flood model was praised for being ______: rather than assuming rainfall spreads evenly, it tracks how water actually pools in low ground and races down channels.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) The colon praises a model that tracks where water actually pools and races down channels instead of assuming an even spread, the mark of a granular, finely resolved model. (C) expansive points to breadth, but the contrast is about detail, not scope. (B) cautious concerns risk-aversion, off the sentence's axis. (D) tentative implies uncertainty, the opposite of the confident precision being praised.
Question 3. Once dismissed as a builder's afterthought, the medieval city wall is now read by historians as a ______ statement, its very height and gateways meant to broadcast the town's wealth and independence.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (C) The wall's height and gateways are meant to broadcast status, so historians read it as a deliberate statement rather than an afterthought. (A) defensive and (B) utilitarian invoke the practical military role the sentence sets aside in favor of symbolism. (D) modest contradicts a display meant to broadcast the town's wealth.
Question 4. The following text is adapted from Charles Dickens's 1861 novel Great Expectations.
He took my watch from my pocket and turned the ring on my finger, while I recoiled from his touch as if he had been a snake. He was a stranger to me, and the warmth of his welcome only deepened my dread.
As used in the text, what does the word "recoiled" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (A) The narrator pulls away from the touch as if it came from a snake, so recoiled means he physically drew back in revulsion. (B) resented captures dislike but misses the bodily flinch the snake simile conveys. (C) trembled is a different reaction, shaking rather than retreating. (D) retaliated would mean striking back, the reverse of shrinking away.
Question 5. Skeptics called the conservation plan ______, but its authors had priced out every stage and secured funding before a single acre was purchased.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) The 'but' answers the skeptics with evidence that the plan was financially and logistically workable: every stage had been priced out and funding had been secured. That refutes the charge that it was impractical. (C) speculative is the strongest pull, but it points to guesswork about outcomes, whereas the rebuttal is specifically about feasibility. (A) ambitious is not contradicted by careful costing, since a plan can be both. (B) premature concerns timing, only glancingly addressed by the groundwork.