Drill 14 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
Review your answers above to learn from any mistakes.
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 14) 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. Volunteers who checked their phones through the night reported sleep that felt ______ rather than restful, broken into short stretches that never let them settle into the deeper stages.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) Sleep 'broken into short stretches' is split into pieces, which is what fragmented means. (A) unbroken says the reverse. (C) prolonged describes length, but the trouble here is interruption, not duration. (D) restorative is contradicted outright by 'rather than restful.'
Question 2. Engineers warned that the cracked truss was not merely ornamental but ______: removing it would shift the deck's full weight onto members never designed to carry it.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) The contrast 'not merely ornamental but ___' calls for a structural role, and the warning spells it out: the truss carries weight other members cannot, which is what load-bearing means. (A) decorative simply restates 'ornamental,' the rejected half of the contrast. (B) superfluous claims the truss is unnecessary, which the danger of removing it disproves. (C) temporary speaks to how long the truss stays in place, not to its structural job.
Question 3. The chord at the phrase's end sounded deliberately ______, leaving the ear expecting a further chord that would finally bring the passage to rest.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) A chord that leaves the ear 'expecting a further chord' to bring the passage to rest withholds the arrival that would settle the tension, which is what unresolved means. (B) melodic concerns tunefulness, not whether tension is settled. (C) muted describes softened volume or tone. (D) repetitive points to repetition, which the sentence never raises and which would not explain the sense of waiting.
Question 4. The following text is adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's 1853 novel Cranford.
You know our friend Mrs. Jamieson is much more phlegmatic than most people, and does not enter into the little delicacies of feeling which you possess in so remarkable a degree.
As used in the text, what does the word "phlegmatic" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) The clause that follows defines the word: Mrs. Jamieson 'does not enter into the little delicacies of feeling,' so she stays calm to the point of being unmoved by finer emotions, which is what unemotional means. (B) sluggish catches the old link between phlegm and slowness, but the contrast here is about feeling, not physical pace. (A) agreeable and (D) sociable describe social warmth rather than emotional responsiveness, so they sit off to one side of the quality the passage measures.
Question 5. After the initial infection clears, the virus does not vanish but becomes ______, hiding in nerve cells for years before any new symptoms appear.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) A virus 'hiding in nerve cells for years before any new symptoms appear' persists quietly without acting, which is what dormant means. (A) active is the direct opposite of lying low. (C) contagious describes whether it can spread, not whether it is currently at rest. (D) weakened claims lost strength, but the sentence says the virus waits intact and can flare later.