Drill 2 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
Review your answers above to learn from any mistakes.
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 2) 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 new wing was meant to complement the old building, but its mirrored glass clashed so badly with the brick that the addition looked ______ rather than integrated.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (C) The glass 'clashed so badly with the brick' that the wing looked anything but 'integrated,' so the blank needs a word for out of place, which is incongruous. (A) ostentatious (showy) might describe mirrored glass but misses the point, which is fit, not flash. (B) dilapidated (run-down) is wrong for a new addition, and (D) provisional (temporary) finds nothing in the sentence to back it.
Question 2. Although the executive's memoir promised candor, reviewers found it ______: every controversy of her career was either omitted or recast to her credit.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) The memoir 'promised candor,' yet every controversy is 'either omitted or recast to her credit,' an account arranged to flatter its author, which is what self-serving means. (B) mendacious claims too much: omitting and recasting are forms of slanting, not necessarily outright lying. (D) cursory implies careless haste, but the omissions are deliberate and selective, the opposite of hasty. (C) tedious (boring) belongs to a contrast the sentence never sets up, since the tension here is candor versus spin, not interest versus dullness.
Question 3. The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
He was always late on principle, holding that punctuality is the thief of time and refusing on those grounds to hurry for anyone.
As used in the text, what does the word "principle" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (D) He is 'always late on principle,' and the sentence spells out that principle as a rule he lives by: holding 'that punctuality is the thief of time' and 'refusing on those grounds to hurry.' That is a rule of conduct. (A) virtue is a real sense of the word, but Wilde is describing a self-justifying habit, not praising anyone's character. (B) law is too formal, since this is a private rule rather than an external regulation. (C) origin reflects the 'first principle' or source sense, which has nothing to do with a governing rule here.
Question 4. Paleontologists once read the creature's long claws as evidence of predation, but newer analysis suggests their function was ______: they served mainly to strip leaves from high branches.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The clause after the colon says the claws 'served mainly to strip leaves from high branches,' which is feeding, so their function was dietary. (A) defensive would suggest protection from attack, but the sentence describes the claws being used to eat, not to fend off a threat. (C) vestigial means a useless leftover, yet these claws clearly had an active use. (D) ceremonial would imply display or ritual, which nothing in the sentence supports.
Question 5. The grant panel found the proposal ______: bold in its aims but vague about methods, full of promises but silent on how any of them would be tested.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) The proposal is 'bold in its aims but vague about methods, full of promises but silent on how any of them would be tested,' so the ideas are stated but not worked out, which is underdeveloped. (C) specious goes further than the evidence, since it means superficially convincing but false, while the panel notes only that detail is missing. (D) pedantic is the reverse of the problem: it means fussily over-detailed, and the flaw here is too little detail. (B) grandiose catches the boldness of the aims but not the central fault, which is that the methods are missing, not that the ambitions are inflated.