This exercise is based on a vocabulary-in-context reading exercise. If you haven’t read that post you may want to do so now. Below are a series of questions. In the first round, you should be able to determine which of the bold-faced words from the movie reviews can fit into the blank. This is no easy feat, so if you are unsure you can scroll to the second group of words and choose from amongst the answer choices.
The test here is so to see how well you are learning vocabulary. For instance, if you studied the words, yet missed most of the questions, you may want to reassess your approach. Are you simply regurgitating definitions without really understanding how the words are employed in sentences? Do you struggle trying to remember the words in the first round, in which you have to provide the word for the blank? Do you know the words yet get tricked by the text completions?
If you answered yes to the first question you will want to focus more on understanding vocabulary in context. If you answered yes on the second than you may want to use flashcards or come up with mnemonics to remember words. If you answered yes to the last question, then you will need to practice doing more text completions.
Here are the questions – good luck!
1. For all her _____ practicality, she is wont, every now and then, to indulge some idealistic notion.
2. Posterity is ____ towards Freud, for while be bequeathed us an effective heuristic for understanding the human psyche, he is also guilty of perpetuating many untruths.
3. The author, mocked by many for his clear yet simplistic, almost child-like prose, can at least not be begrudged the distinction of writing with _____.
If that was easy, good job! If you need a little help, here are the answer choices.
1. For all her _____ practicality, she is wont, every now and then, to indulge some idealistic notion.
- pragmatic
- thoroughgoing
- revenant
- mock
- ambivalent
2. Posterity is ____ towards Freud, for while be bequeathed us an effective heuristic for understanding the human psyche, he is also guilty of perpetuating many untruths.
- uncanny
- ambivalent
- unnerving
- genial
- thoroughgoing
3. The author, mocked by many for his simplistic, almost child-like prose, can at least not be begrudged the distinction of writing with _____.
- geniality
- pragmatism
- ambivalence
- thoroughgoingness
- lucidity
The answers are as follows:
1. B
2. B
3. E
Now for the bonus, difficult question, try this one. I’ll provide the answers choices.
When constantly (i) _____, apocryphal quotations can make the truth seem (ii)_____. For instance, people often spout the phrase “Play it again, Sam,” (iii) _____ quoting Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. When we watch the movie, we assume that the actor has botched his lines when he says, “Play it, Sam.”
| Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | Blank (iii) |
| A. bandied about | D. unnerving | G. uncannily |
| B. discredited | E. suspect | H. ostensibly |
| C. misattributed | F. credible | I. retroactively |
Explanation:
I threw a couple of curve balls. Basically, the last two blanks aren’t correctly answered with words on the list. The first blank “bandied about” (A) is the answer. For the second blank (E) suspect is the credited response because the text completion gives an example of something that has been repeated so often the actual version of it seems false. (H) ostensibly, the answer for the last blank, means apparently. People think that they are quoting Bogart but they are actually adding an extra word, which makes the quotation apocryphal (Bogie never really said those exact words).
Thank God i didn’t checked the answers and tried to come up with my own words and got it correct
difficult text completion can be easy especially when we break the sentences into smaller word and look for the clue words which underpin the tone of overall sentence.
Exactly! I think a lot of people can miss the last one if they are not paying attention .