Drill 9 · Reading & Writing · Hard Words in Context
Review your answers above to learn from any mistakes.
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Words in Context (Drill 9) 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 early outbreak figures were ______: later case reviews found that limited testing had missed a large share of mild infections.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (C) The colon explains that testing 'missed a large share of mild infections,' so the reported counts fell below the true number. Understated names figures that are too low. (A) inflated means too high, the opposite of undercounting. (D) accurate claims the figures were correct, which the missed cases directly contradict. (B) alarming comments on how the numbers felt rather than whether they were too high or too low.
Question 2. The archivist's catalog was admired for being ______: every letter, receipt, and marginal note in the collection had its own indexed entry.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (B) The colon lists 'every letter, receipt, and marginal note,' each with an entry, so the catalog leaves nothing out. Exhaustive names that completeness. (D) selective is the natural opposite, describing a catalog that includes only some items. (C) abridged means shortened or condensed, but covering every scrap is the reverse of cut down. (A) legible concerns whether the entries can be read, not how fully the collection is covered.
Question 3. The dissent objected that the majority's rule was too ______: stated so broadly, it would reach conduct the case had never contemplated.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (D) The reasoning is that the rule, 'stated so broadly,' would reach conduct the case 'never contemplated,' so its fault is covering far too much. Overinclusive names a rule that sweeps in cases it should not. (A) lenient addresses how forgiving a rule is, not its scope. (B) obscure concerns difficulty of understanding, while the complaint is about reach. (C) technical points to complexity, which the dissent never raises.
Question 4. The faint signal was nearly ______ in the instrument's own noise: only after months of repeated observation could the team distinguish the star's pulse from random static.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?
Explanation: (A) The signal was 'nearly ___ in the instrument's own noise,' and only long observation let the team tell the pulse from 'random static,' so it could barely be perceived. Indiscernible means impossible or nearly impossible to make out. (B) negligible is the strong pull, but it judges a quantity as too small to matter, while the sentence is about whether the signal could be detected at all. (C) sporadic describes something that comes and goes at irregular intervals, not faintness against background noise. (D) magnified reverses the situation, since the signal was buried, not enlarged.
Question 5. The following text is adapted from Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel Far from the Madding Crowd.
Gabriel's features adhered throughout their form so exactly to the middle line between the beauty of St. John and the ugliness of Judas Iscariot that not a single lineament could be selected and called worthy either of distinction or notoriety.
As used in the text, what does the word "worthy" most nearly mean?
Explanation: (C) The phrase 'worthy either of distinction or notoriety' means meriting notice of any kind, and the point is that no single feature stood out enough to deserve comment. Deserving fits that sense of warranting attention. (A) virtuous draws on the moral meaning of worthy, but the passage is about appearance, not character. (D) dignified describes bearing rather than whether a feature merits remark. (B) wealthy invokes worth as money, which has no place in a description of someone's face.