CRAFT AND STRUCTURE: WORDS IN CONTEXT

Business researcher Melanie Brucks and colleagues found that remote video conference
1. meetings may be less conducive to brainstorming than in-person meetings are. The researchers
suspect that video meeting participants are focused on staring at the speaker on the screen and
don’t allow their eyes or mind to wander as much, which may ultimately ______ creativity.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. recommend

B. criticize

C. construct

D. impede
In recommending Bao Phi’s collection Sông I Sing, a librarian noted that pieces by the spoken-
2. word poet don’t lose their ______ nature when printed: the language has the same pleasant
musical quality on the page as it does when performed by Phi.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. Jarring

B. Scholarly

C. Melodic

D. personal
3. Some foraging models predict that the distance bees travel when foraging will decline as floral
density increases, but biologists Shalene Jha and Claire Kremen showed that bees’ behavior is
inconsistent with this prediction if flowers in dense patches are ______: bees will forage beyond
patches of low species richness to acquire multiple resource types.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. depleted

B. homogeneous

C. immature

D. dispersed

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 Visual artist Gabriela Alemán states that the bold colors of comics, pop art, and Latinx culture
4. have always fascinated her. This passion for the rich history and colors of her Latinx community
translates into the ______ artworks she produces.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. unknown

B. reserved

C. definite

D. vivid
5. Osage Nation citizen Randy Tinker-Smith produced and directed the ballet Wahzhazhe, which
vividly chronicles Osage history and culture. Telling Osage stories through ballet is ______
choice because two of the foremost ballet dancers of the twentieth century were Osage: sisters
Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. an unpredictable

B. an arbitrary

C. a determined

D. a suitable
6. The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to
Sea.” John wants to travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, Matty.
[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion, but found it a
difficult task. Matty always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son’s desires were
incomprehensible to her, that was all.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “reconcile his mother to” most nearly mean?

A. Get his mother to accept

B. Get his mother to apologize for

C. Get his mother to match

D. Get his mother to reunite with

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7. Biologist Jane Edgeloe and colleagues have located what is believed to be the largest individual
plant in the world in the Shark Bay area of Australia. The plant is a type of seagrass called
Posidonia australis, and it ______ approximately 200 square kilometers.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. acknowledges

B. produces

C. spans

D. advances
8. Mineralogical differences are detectable in samples collected from two locations on the near-
Earth asteroid Ryugu, but such differences may not indicate substantial compositional variations
in the asteroid. Cosmochemist Kazuhide Nagashima and colleagues note that at the small scale
of the samples, the distribution of minerals is unlikely to be ______.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. redundant

B. neglected

C. uniform

D. ongoing
9. Stephen Hannock’s luminous landscape paintings are appealing to viewers but have elicited little
commentary from contemporary critics, a phenomenon that may be due to the very fact that the
paintings seem so ______. Many critics focus their attention on art that is cryptic or overtly
challenging.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. innovative

B. accessible

C. profound

D. subversive
10. The following text is from Booth Tarkington’s 1921 novel Alice Adams.

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 Mrs. Adams had always been fond of vases, she said, and every year her husband’s Christmas
present to her was a vase of one sort or another—whatever the clerk showed him, marked at
about twelve or fourteen dollars.

As used in the text, what does the word “marked” most nearly mean?

A. Stained

B. Staged

C. Watched

D. Priced
The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s
11. Experiment.” The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.
At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture.
Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and
assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most nearly mean?

A. A lonely

B. A disagreeable

C. An acceptable

D. An extraordinary
12. Economist Marco Castillo and colleagues showed that nuisance costs—the time and effort
people must spend to make donations—reduce charitable giving. Charities can mitigate this
effect by compensating donors for nuisance costs, but those costs, though variable, are largely
______ donation size, so charities that compensate donors will likely favor attracting a few large
donors over many small donors.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. predictive of

B. subsumed in

C. independent of

D. supplemental to

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13. US traffic signals didn’t always contain the familiar three lights (red, yellow, and green). Traffic
lights only ______ red and green lights until the three-light traffic signal was developed in 1923.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. avoided

B. featured

C. appreciated

D. disregarded
14. The following text is from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
[Jay Gatsby] was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of
movement that is so peculiarly American—that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work
in youth and, even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality
was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.

As used in the text, what does the word “quality” most nearly mean?
A. Characteristic

B. Standard

C. Prestige

D. Accomplishment

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