GRE Text Completion Practice: Advanced Logic

Challenge yourself with 6 Hard-level Text Completion questions. This set tests your ability to navigate dense academic prose and distinguish between nuanced synonyms.

Set 1: Complex Sentence Structures

Watch for "Pivot Words" (While, However, Rather) that flip the meaning.

Question 1: Three Blanks (Contrast)

While the sensory engagement of lower animals is primarily _______, arrested by raw stimuli, the human mind exercises a fundamentally _______ function. It does not merely register disparate elements but actively seizes them, investing them with meaning and _______ them into a cohesive whole.

Blank (i)
premeditated
reflexive
transcendent
Blank (ii)
synthetic
palliative
derivative
Blank (iii)
amalgamating
winnowing
obfuscating
Question 2: Two Blanks (Support)

The evolution of English after the Norman Conquest was not instantaneous; rather, it involved a _______ transition. The existing vernacular did not vanish but underwent a process of _______ with the language of the conquerors, eventually coalescing into modern English.

Blank (i)
seamless
glacial
precipitate
Blank (ii)
bifurcation
obsolescence
syncretism
Question 3: Two Blanks (Cause-Effect)

By 1843, the university’s finances had become exceedingly precarious, driven in part by the _______ revenue from the sale of state lands. Furthermore, a loan intended for expansion proved _______, as the high costs of new facilities rapidly exhausted the funds.

Blank (i)
munificent
anomalous
derisory
Blank (ii)
ruinous
providential
salutary

Set 2: Nuanced Definitions

Focus on the precise meaning of the word in context.

Question 4: Single Blank

After a tiring morning of shopping, the friends sought rest in a bakery, hoping to enjoy a purely _______ treat of cakes and sweet buns.

Select One
ascetic
epicurean
peripatetic
didactic
spartan
Question 5: Three Blanks (Logic)

The author argues that a thriving society is incompatible with absolute intellectual _______. If citizens were to forge their own individual truths, the resulting lack of _______ would make collective action impossible. Consequently, social cohesion requires individuals to occasionally embrace certain _______ beliefs that bind the community together.

Blank (i)
autonomy
servility
pragmatism
Blank (ii)
polarization
consensus
strife
Blank (iii)
dogmatic
esoteric
ephemeral
Question 6: Three Blanks (Pivot)

To a casual observer, the boundary between animals and plants appears _______. However, this seemingly robust classification is quickly _______ by the discovery of organisms like zoophytes, which possess attributes that _______ these traditional categories.

Blank (i)
arbitrary
unequivocal
nebulous
Blank (ii)
reified
subverted
ossified
Blank (iii)
fortify
delineate
transgress

Vocabulary Builder: Words from this Set

Synthetic

Click to Define

Combining parts to form a whole.

Syn: Integrative

Glacial

Click to Define

Extremely slow (like a glacier).

Syn: Sluggish

Syncretism

Click to Define

Merging of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.

Syn: Fusion, Amalgamation

Derisory

Click to Define

Ridiculously small or inadequate.

Syn: Laughable, Paltry

Epicurean

Click to Define

Devoted to the enjoyment of food and comfort.

Syn: Hedonistic, Gourmet

Dogmatic

Click to Define

Inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.

Syn: Opinionated, Rigid

Unequivocal

Click to Define

Leaving no doubt.

Syn: Unambiguous, Clear

Transgress

Click to Define

Infringe or go beyond the bounds of.

Syn: Violate, Cross
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