Drill 3 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 3) 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 diplomat was praised for her ______ replies: she answered every question fully and on the record, refusing the evasions her predecessors had relied on.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) She 'answered every question fully and on the record, refusing the evasions her predecessors had relied on,' the mark of being forthright: frank and direct. (B) diplomatic is a tempting trap because she is a diplomat, but the sentence emphasizes openness and directness, not tact. (A) voluble (talkative) measures quantity of speech, not the honesty the sentence praises, and (C) measured (restrained) cuts against the fullness and directness on display.
Question 2. Economists expected the subsidy to raise rural wages, but its effect proved ______: across every district that received it, large or small, pay barely moved at all.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) 'Across every district that received it, large or small, pay barely moved at all,' so the effect was almost nothing everywhere, which is negligible. (D) uneven is the tempting one, but the sentence rules it out directly: it says the result was the same across every district, large or small, not that it varied. (A) deleterious means harmful, yet barely moving is near zero, not negative, so it points the wrong way. (C) transient (short-lived) concerns duration, while the sentence measures size of effect, not how long it lasted.
Question 3. The following text is adapted from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.
I endeavoured to crush these fears and to fortify myself for the trial which in a few months I resolved to undergo.
As used in the text, what does the word "fortify" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) He 'endeavoured to crush these fears and to fortify [him]self for the trial,' that is, to build up his own resolve, so fortify means to strengthen. (A) defend shifts to repelling an outside attacker, but he is steeling himself inwardly rather than fending anyone off. (B) garrison is the military 'fortify a position' sense, and no place is being manned here. (D) enrich, meaning to add wealth or value, has nothing to do with the courage he is gathering.
Question 4. Critics had called the director's earlier films cold, so the warmth of her latest work struck many as a ______ from her established style.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) Critics called her earlier films 'cold,' so the 'warmth' of the new one is a move away from her established manner, a departure. (B) continuation inverts that, since warmth breaking from coldness is the opposite of carrying on the same way. (C) recovery would imply she is returning to some earlier warmth, which the sentence never mentions, and (D) refinement is too mild, suggesting a small polish of the same style rather than the shift from cold to warm.
Question 5. The following text is adapted from George Eliot's 1871 novel Middlemarch.
She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense.
As used in the text, what does the word "addition" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) She is called 'remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense.' The 'but' signals that the added remark walks the praise back, so addition here means a qualification, a limiting reservation. (A) sum is the arithmetic sense, but nothing is being totaled and 'but' marks reservation, not accumulation. (B) extension is close, since a remark is indeed being added, but it suggests expanding the praise when the clause actually limits it. (D) appendage means something physically tacked on, the wrong register for a spoken qualifier, and it misses the concessive force of 'but.'