Drill 15 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
Review your answers above to learn from any mistakes.
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 15) 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 fossil record for the group is frustratingly ______: long stretches of geologic time have yielded no specimens at all, so researchers must infer the missing forms from those that bracket the gaps.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) With long stretches of time yielding 'no specimens at all' and forms that must be inferred across gaps, the record is full of holes, which is what incomplete means. (A) seamless inverts the picture, describing a record with no gaps. (B) abundant is contradicted by 'no specimens at all.' (C) recent comments on the age of the fossils rather than on whether the record has gaps.
Question 2. The printer chose a face whose letters stayed ______ even at small sizes, so that a reader could move down a dense column without straining to tell one character from the next.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) Reading 'without straining to tell one character from the next' means the letters stay easy to make out, which is what legible means. (B) ornate describes decoration, which at small sizes would hinder rather than help recognition. (C) compressed speaks to narrow spacing, a cause of strain rather than the clarity credited here. (D) faint runs opposite to clear visibility.
Question 3. The following text is adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's story A Scandal in Bohemia.
Even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him.
As used in the text, what does the word "spare" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) The word modifies a 'tall figure' seen only in silhouette, where outline is all that shows, so spare here means lean or thin of build. (A) generous draws on the 'to spare' sense of plenty, the reverse of a slim outline. (B) indubitable treats as without any doubt, but a silhouette of a body points to physique, not certainty of existence. (D) shabby imports a judgment about worn appearance that a dark outline could not convey.
Question 4. In the repeated game, cooperation held only when each move was ______: a player who helped a partner could count on being helped in turn, while one who cheated was met with the same.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) Help is returned with help and cheating with cheating, an exchange that answers like with like, which is what reciprocal means. (A) selfish describes pursuing one's own gain, which would undercut the cooperation the sentence says held. (C) random contradicts the tight if-then pattern. (D) vengeful captures only the punishing half and misses the rewarding half, so it fails to cover the full exchange.
Question 5. On the floor of the mature forest, seedlings of sun-loving trees rarely survive: the ground there is too deeply ______ by the closed canopy overhead for them to gather the light they need.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) A 'closed canopy overhead' blocking the light seedlings need leaves the ground beneath it in shadow, which is what shaded means. (A) barren names infertility, a different cause of failure than lack of light. (B) exposed inverts the picture, since a closed canopy is the opposite of open exposure. (C) sparse would describe thin vegetation, not the canopy's effect on light reaching the floor.