All Things Verbal

GRE Text Completion Quiz 6

1. It was difficult to tell whether his tirade in fact had force of fact, whether his forceful (i) ______ was mere (ii) ______, motivated by malice, or whether it ranked as reportorial (iii) ______ of which the committee ought take notice.

fulmination
desecration
ululation
sophistry
boosterism
aspersion
muckraking
calumny
prattle

2. Her grandparents valued seemliness above all else, and were (i) ______ at her incorrigibly (ii) ______ behavior.

loquacious
agog
nonchalant
mutinous
indelicate
tortuous

3. It was apparent to everyone present that upon receiving the medal, a decoration long past due, the superannuated veteran adopted a mood of exaggerated hilarity, almost as if the unexpected resolution of a lifetime of injustice came as a ______ surprise.

sanctimonious
risible
parsimonious
prodigal
plangent

4. There are many good reasons to construct urban traffic lanes for cyclists: city infrastructure is already ______ under the strain of excess auto traffic, and the safety advantages of limiting road-sharing between cyclists and vehicles are all too clear.

seething
waiting
groaning
baying
intensifying

5. Despite their diminutive stature, horse jockeys are far from ______ bunch: many would all-too-happily allow minor umbrage to escalate to barroom brawl.

a stygian
a farcical
an effete
an evocative
an ecumenical

6. The apparent simplicity of a cup of coffee ______ the dizzying number of hours of toil required to produce it, from months of cultivation of the bean tree to painstaking refinement in highly sophisticated machinery.

redresses
confirms
belies
furnishes
fosters

7. Notwithstanding the mishmash of worn tools littering every surface of the artist’s studio, the place exuded a certain sense of order manifest through the clutter; the decor was, if (i) ______, (ii) ______.

unkempt
dire
arduous
largely unsophisticated
positively callous
surprisingly deliberate

8. Two years after the legislature’s (i) ______ approval of the community edifice, construction came to an equally public standstill, largely due to the unforeseen hemorrhaging of the (ii) ______ funds at the hands of spendthrift leaders.

scorned
heralded
ratified
adduced
adumbrated
appropriated

9. Incensed, and perhaps spooked, by the implications of the bureau’s purportedly (i) ______ inquisitions, the Hollywood film director shuttered his studios, suspended production of numerous projects, and (ii) ______ with his wife to Europe.

suspicious
benign
risqué
immigrated
absconded
pandered

10. The relationship between the two leaders has gone from positively (i) ______ to chilly at best, not least because the recent arms scandal threatens to (ii) ______ the mutual trust that has been held on both sides for years.

parsimonious
reverent
congenial
bolster
erode
fester

11. One needn’t resort to arrant (i) ______ in order to demonstrate that one possesses the requisite degree of deference and respect for one’s elders; indeed, oftentimes such blandishments can make one appear (ii) ______ and ignorant—qualities presumably (iii) ______ with the original intent.

flattery
officiousness
veracity
artisan
fatuous
sardonic
apposite
incongruous
daunting

12. Debates over free will have always focused on the extent to which humans may be said to be fully (i) ______ their actions. Dr. Wegner in his article deliberately and artfully (ii) ______ the traditional talking points of the controversy, instead asking a tangential, though possibly more (iii) ______, question: What effect does a person’s belief in free will have on his or her well-being?

responsible for
aware of
based on
mitigates
eschews
contradicts
fundamental
ideological
flashy

13. Once the candidate established herself as the clear frontrunner, it took but a brief interlude in the clamor for all her erstwhile (i) ______ to gather around her and to begin loudly proclaiming their (ii) ______. It seemed, in other words, to cause these newcomers not an iota of discomfort to behave in a manner that a casual observer might have characterized as (iii) ______ outright hypocrisy.

factotums
detractors
zealots
reputability
magnanimity
fealty
tantamount to
reciprocal with
hinging on

14. Some substances toxic to humans induce lassitude and torpor, whereas others incite (i) ______ or (ii) ______.

convulsions
contretemps
apathy
complaints
retching
drowsiness