Sentence Completion Test - 1

Although great care is ---- in the investigation of a crime scene, the rapid deterioration of some forms of evidence demands ----.

A desirable..haste
B unnecessary..swiftness
C required..thoroughness
D assumed..attention
E common..speed


Faced with a barrage of ---- advice about infant sleep patterns, nutritional requirements, and emotional needs, new mothers are frequently confused.

A useful
B scholarly
C important
D traditional
E conflicting


When Australian cane toads are ----, they release a venom from glands on the back of their heads that has proven to have hallucinogenic effects on potential predators.

A retractable
B curious
C antagonized
D satiated
E somnolent


In order to survive the challenges they found in ---- environments, human ancestors had to be ---- changing circumstances.

A dynamic .. adaptable to
B hospitable .. impervious to
C improving .. resistant to
D stagnant .. untroubled by
E dangerous .. cynical about


At the turn of the eighteenth century, ---- by increased consumption of tea, coffee and sugar worldwide, sugar overtook tobacco as America's most ---- export.

A driven . . dangerous
B influenced . . overlooked
C propelled . . expensive
D spurred . . lucrative
E hindered . . desired


Edgar's ---- writings won fame more for their eccentricity than their message.

A idiosyncratic
B prophetic
C political
D arcane
E esoteric


The problem of world hunger is ---- in sub-Saharan Africa, where one-third of the population is ---- undernourished.

A most palatable . . perpetually
B bleakest . .chronically
C most tangible . . barely
D most serious . . never
E hardiest . . slightly


Despite his ---- of formal training, members of the industry sought out the designer because he offered solutions based on practical ---- rather than textbooks.

A abundance . . formulae
B absence . . theory
C battery . . hearsay
D lack . . experience
E want . . academics


Claiming that they talk ---- of trivial matters, the girls in the outdoors club accuse the school's cheerleaders of being ----.

A candidly . . vacuous
B insightfully . . irritating
C infrequently . . predictable
D profoundly . . cerebral
E incessantly . . vapid

Though the counting method used by the federal census is a seemingly ---- issue, because of its importance in determining funding it is also a politically ---- one.

A innocuous . . viable
B ineluctable . . volatile
C vital . . insignificant
D arcane . . sensitive
E obscure . . uninteresting


One of the most ---- consequences of the Industrial Revolution was that it wiped out the ---- division of society into church, aristocracy, and commoners.

A dramatic . . arcane
B innocuous . . ancient
C radical . . endemic
D enduring . . esoteric
E significant . . tripartite


Some view the French Revolution not as a single uprising but as a collection of ---- revolutions; peasants, bourgeoisie, and artisans expressed their discontent in simultaneous ----.

A concomitant . . excursions
B concurrent . . uprisings
C divergent . . predilections
D successive . . rebellions
E manorial . . demonstrations

If the current movement favoring the use of pharmaceuticals in psychiatric medicine ----, there won't be a single ---- without a drug to prescribe for its treatment.

A continues . . doctor
B persists . . condition
C ceases . . illness
D attenuates . . malady
E intensifies . . cure


The effort to meet the world's growing ---- for energy has led corporations to exploit new technologies and look for alternate sources of energy in ---- places.

A disingenuous . . unexploited
B thirst . . untoward
C need . . desultory
D demand . . unexpected
E desire . . amorous



Though in agreement with most of the ---- of rationalist philosophy, Sigmund Freud had less confidence in the power of reason than some thinkers before him, and unlike them he believed humans were not ---- rational creatures.

A lessons . . immutably
B precepts . . fundamentally
C idioms . . essentially
D innovations . . irreducibly
E versions . . especially


Malcolm's library was both ---- and ----; he had shelf after shelf of titles on every subject.

A monotonous .. exhaustive
B immutable .. extensive
C varied .. voluminous
D heterogeneous .. limited
E diverse .. meager


The explosion of the British art scene in recent years has resulted in a dispersion of galleries in London, as the older ones downtown ---- for attention with newer ones on the ---- of the city.

A vie . . subalterns
B strive . . bottom
C struggle . . inside
D clamor . . outskirts
E compete . . periphery


The paleontologist seemed ---- the punishing heat; she could walk all day intently scanning the ground for fossils.

A cognizant of
B reluctant about
C mournful about
D disappointed by
E oblivious to


Because opium and morphine are ---- the poppy plant, people who have eaten poppy seed bagels or cakes occasionally receive false positives in drug tests.

A hybrids of
B derived from
C prescriptive to
D corollaries of
E antithetical to



Transportation problems are ----; reduced public transit service leads to increased use of automobiles, which results in greater traffic congestion.

A ambiguous
B spontaneous
C interrelated
D superficial
E objective


To test his theory that prehistoric men used frozen lakes as refrigerators for their mammoth meat, the ---- ate horse meat he had left in a local pond for several months.

A immunologist
B abolitionist
C paleontologist
D archivist
E chemist


Because various methods of birth control are more prevalent in affluent nations, population growth is generally much ---- in rich nations than in poor ones.

A more rapid
B more restrained
C more enduring
D less slow
E more steady


Over the years, the apprentice has ---- been gaining ----.

A quickly . . dexterity
B certainly . . wealth
C slowly . . mastery
D steadily . . currency
E inexplicably . . ability


When criticized for his ---- performance, the athlete responded with an angry ---- directed at his coach and his teammates.

A disloyal . . speech
B disastrous . . panegyric
C eccentric . . diatribe
D lackluster . . harangue
E immutable . . invective

From slapstick to satire, tragedy to farce, the theater in early modern Europe took ---- forms.

A bifurcated
B multifarious
C dissipated
D dissonant
E comedic


After years of rapid ----, Atlanta has the longest commutes in the nation and air so polluted that the federal government has threatened to ---- highway funds.

A expansion . . withhold
B deterioration . . cut
C growth . . supplement
D decline . . double
E development . . augment


Irregularities in the orbits of some planets have allowed astronomers to ---- the existence of other, as of yet undiscovered, planets.

A adumbrate
B collate
C infer
D derive
E forestall

Fearful that the matter would ---- into a ----, the company chose to settle the controversy as quickly as possible.

A deteriorate .. obligation
B escalate .. scandal
C ripen .. conspiracy
D improve..annoyance
E blossom..contradiction


Because he enjoyed only ---- support in Congress, the president was forced to ---- the views of his detractors when making his decisions.

A ephemeral . . uphold
B marginal . . consider
C partial . . denigrate
D inconsistent . . formulate
E cosmetic . . evaluate

The frantic expansion of William Randolph Hearst's publishing empire, and the debts New York bankers carried for him, serve as a perfect metaphor for the ---- of the 1920s.

A frugality
B frivolity
C recklessness
D entertainment
E carousing


Attention deficit disorder is so ---- that ---- about its recognition and treatment persists among physicians as well as the public.

A complex .. confusion
B prevalent .. antagonism
C severe .. indifference
D unique .. contempt
E oversimplified .. impatience

Punishment should be ----, when the criminal act is still fresh in the mind of the perpetrators.

A harsh
B appropriate
C carefully considered
D immediate
E thorough


Contrary to popular expectations, the underdog gymnastics team ---- the competition.

A lost
B withdrew from
C entered
D welcomed
E won


Unlike her ---- sister, Maria would boldly join the conversation at any gathering.

A brash
B obstinate
C apathetic
D timid
E humorless


The emperor was responsible for reestablishing friendly relations with the West, forging ---- ties by sending an ambassador to every important city in Europe.

A economic
B political
C social
D religious
E diplomatic


Despite his reputation as a renowned journalist, he wrote an article ---- factual errors and glaring omissions.

A containing
B refuting
C correcting
D inciting
E dismissing


Beginning in 1347, the plague ---- Europe periodically for 150 years, ---- the population in some areas by as much as a third.

A visited . . augmenting
B infected . . lionizing
C ravaged . . reducing
D indoctrinated . . decreasing
E bypassed . . slashing


Although he was ordinarily ----, Mr. Wendell would talk at length about his hobbies.

A reticent
B insistent
C satisfied
D wordy
E persuasive


The young reporter took the ---- assignment, thinking of it as a way station until something better came along.

A career
B interim
C notorious
D prestigious
E sinister

Due to its ---- topography and setting, Gibraltar has an unparalleled variety of flora and fauna.

A commonplace
B useful
C serene
D uncommon
E standard


# The fact that the- of confrontation is no longer as popular as it once was - progress in race relations.

1. insidiousness - reiterates
2. practice - inculcates
3. glimmer - foreshadows
4. technique - presages
5. reticence - indicates


# A child should not be - as being either very shy or over - aggressive.

1. categorized
2. instructed
3. intoned
4. distracted
5. refrained


# President Anwar el - Sadat of Egypt, disregarding - criticism in the Alab world and in his own Government, - accepted prime minister Menahem Begin's invitation to visit Israel in order to address the Israeli parliament.

1. acrimonious - formally
2. blemished - stiffly
3. categorical - previously
4. malignant - plaintively
5. charismatic - meticulously


# In his usual - manner, he had insured himself against this type of loss.

1. pensive
2. providential
3. indifferent
4. circumspect
5. caustic


# We never believed that he would resort to - in order to achieve his goal; we always regarded him as a - man.

1. charm - insincere
2. necromancy - pietistic
3. logic - honorable
4. prestidigitation - articulate
5. subterfuge - honest


# The Sociologist responded to the charge that her new theory was - by pointing out that it did not in fact contradict accepted sociological principles.

1. unproven
2. banal
3. superficial
4. complex
5. heretical


# Despite assorted effusion to the contrary, there is no necessary link between scientific skill and humanism, and quite possibly, there may be something of a - between them.

1. dichotomy
2. congruity
3. reciprocity
4. fusion
5. generosity


# The most technologically advanced societies have been responsible for the greatest - indeed savagery seems to be indirect proposition to -

1. inventions - know-how
2. wars - viciousness
3. triumphs - civilizations
4. atrocities - development
5. catastrophes - ill-will


# Ironically, the party leaders encountered no greater - their efforts to build as Progressive Party than the - of the progressive already elected to the legislature.

1. obstacle to - resistance
2. support for - advocacy
3. praise for - reputation
4. threat to - promise
5. benefit - success


# The simplicity of the theory - its main attraction - is also its - for only by - the assumptions of the theory is it possible to explain the most recent observations made by researchers.

1. glory - rejecting
2. liability - accepting
3. undoing - supplementing
4. downfall - considering
5. virtue - qualifying


# That the Third Battalion's fifty percent casually rate transformed its assault on Hill 306 from a brilliant stratagem into a debacle does not - eyewitness reports of its commander's extra-ordinary - in deploying his forces.

1. invalidate - brutality
2. gainsay - cleverness
3. underscore - ineptitude
4. justify - rapidity
5. corroborate -determination


# No longer - by the belief that the world around us was expressly designed for humanity, many people try to find intellectual - for that lost certainty in astrology and in mysticism.

1. satisfied - reasons
2. reassured - justifications
3. restricted - parallels
4. sustained - substitutes
5. hampered - equivalents


# In eighth-century Japan, people who - wasteland were rewarded with official ranks as part of an effort to overcome the shortage of - fields.

1. cultivated - domestic
2. located - desirable
3. conserved - forested
4. reclaimed - arable
5. irrigated - accessible.


# Clearly refuting sceptics, researchers have - not only that gravitational radiation exists but that it also does exactly what the theory- it should do.

1. assumed - deducted
2. estimated - accepted
3. supposed - asserted
4. doubted - warranted
5. demonstrated - predicted.


# Melodramas, which presented stark oppositions between innocence and criminality, virtue and corruption, good and evil, were popular precisely because they offered the audience a world - of -

1. deprived - polarity
2. full - circumstantiality
3. bereft - theatricality
4. devoid - neutrality
5. composed - adversity.


# Sponsors of the bill were-because there was no opposition to it within the legislative, until after the measure had been signed into law.

1. well-intentioned
2. persistent
3. detained
4. unreliable
5. relieved.

# Ecology, like economics, concerns itself with the movement of valuable - through a complex network of producers and consumers.

1. nutrients
2. dividends
3. communications
4. artifacts
5. commodities.


# Having fully embraced the belief that government by persuasion is preferable to government by - the leaders of the movement have recently - most of their previous statements supporting totalitarianism.

1. proclamation - codified
2. coercion - repudiated
3. participation - moderated
4. intimidation - issued
5. demonstration - deliberated.

# It would be difficult for one so - to be led to believe that all men are equal and that we must disregard race, color and creed.

1. tolerant
2. democratic
3. broadminded
4. emotional
5. intolerant.


# Many philosophers agree that the verbal aggression of profanity in certain redical newspapers is not - or childish, but an assault on - essential to the revolutionary's purpose.

1. insolent - sociability
2. trivial - decorum
3. belligerent - fallibility
4. serious - propriety
5. deliberate - affectation.



21. The - tones of the flute succeeded in - his tense nerves.
1. rhapsodic - minimising
2. blatant - enhancing
3. hovendous - calming
4. vibrant - portraying
5. mellifluous - soothing.


22. Without the psychiatrist's promise of confidentiality, trust is - and the patient's communication limited; even though confidentiality can thus be seen to be precious in thercopy, moral responsibility sometimes requires a willingness to - it.
1. lost - forget
2. implicit - extend
3. impaired - sacrifise
4. ambiguous - apply
5. assumed - examine.


23. Parts of seventeenth-century Chinese pleasure gardens were not necessarily intended to look -they were designed expressly to evoke the agreeable melancholy resulting from a sense of the - of natural beauty and human glory.
1. great - immutability
2. joyful - mortality
3. conventional - wildness
4. cheerful - transitoriness
5. colorful - abstractness.


24. Despite the - of many of their colleagues, some scholars have begun to emphasize ''pop culture'' as a key for - the myths, hopes, and fears of contemporary society.
1. pedantry - reinstating
2. enthusiasm - symbolizing
3. skepticism - deciphering
4. antipathy - involving
5. discernment - evaluating.

25. If duty is the natural - of one's the course of future events, then people who are powerful have duty placed on them whether they like it or not.
1. outgrowth - control over
2. arbiter - responsibility for
3. correlate - understanding of
4. determinant - involvement in
5. mitigant - preoccupation with .


26. Clearly refuting sceptics, researches have - not only that gravitational radiation exists but that it also does exactly what the theory - it should do.
1. supposed - asserted
2. voubted -warranted
3. assumed - deduced
4. demonstrated - predicted
5. estimated - accepted


27. The Neolatonists' conception of a deity, in which perfection was measured by abundant fecundity, was contradicted by that of the Aristotelians, in which perfection was displayed in the - of creation.
1. variety
2. economy
3. profusion
4. clarity
5. precision.

28. It is a great - to be able to transfer useful genes with as little extra gene material as possible, because the donor's genome may contain, in addition to desirable genes, many genes with - effects.
1. Disappointment - superfluous
2. Convenience - exquisite
3. Advantage - deleterious
4. Accomplishment - profound
5. Misfortune - unpredictable.


29. While admitting that the risks incurred by use of the insecticide were not - the manufacturer's spokesperson argued that effective - were simply not available.
1. indeterminable - safeguards
2. unusual - alternatives
3. inconsequential - substitutes
4. proven - antidotes
5. increasing - procedures.


30. Human reaction to the realm of though is often as strong as that to sensible presences; our higher moral life is based on the fact that - sensations actually present may have a weaker influence on our action than do ideas of - facts.
1. emotional - impersonal
2. familiar : symbolic
3. disturbing - ordinary
4. material - remote
5. defenitive - controvoisial.


# Some scientists argue that carbon compounds play such a central role in life on earth because of the possibility of - resulting from the carbon atom's ability to form an unending series of different molecules.

1. variety
2. stability
3. deviations
4. invigorations
5. reproduction.


# It would be difficult for one so - to be led to believe that all men are equal and that we must disregard race, color and creed.

1. intolerant
2. democratic
3. emotional
4. patient
5. broadminded.


# An occasional - remark spoiled the - that made the paper memorable.

1. colloquial
2. trite - cliches
3. urbane - sophisticated
4. hackneyed - originality
5. jovial - fun.


# Broadway audiences have become inured to - and so - to be pleased as to make their ready ovations meaningless as an indicator of the quality of the production before them.

1. cleverness : eager
2. condescension : disinclined
3. sentimentality : reluctant
4. mediocrity : desperate
5. histrionics : unlikely

# Nineteenth - century scholars, by examining earlier geometric Greek art, found that classical Greek art was not a magical - or a brilliant - blending Egyptian and Assyruin art, but was independently evolved by Greeks in Greece.

1. conversion - annexation
2. apparition - amalgam
3. stratagem - appropriation
4. paradigm - construct
5. example - synthesis


# The struggle of the generations is one of the obvious constants of human affairs; therefore, it may be presumptuous to suggest that the rivalry between young and old in western society during the current decade is - critical.

1. archetypally
2. perennially
3. disturbingly
4. uniquely
5. cautiously


# Even though in today's Soviet union the - Muslim clergy have been accorded power and privileges, the Muslim laity and the rank - and - file clergy still. Have little - to practice their religion.

1. adversaries of - inclination
2. traditionalists among - incentive
3. practitioners among - opportunity
4. leaders of - latitude
5. dissidents within -obligation


# Unlike the Shakespearean plays, The ''closet dramas'' of the nineteenth century were meant to be - rather than -

1. seen - acted
2. read - acted
3. produced - acted
4. quiet - loud
5. sophisticated - urbane


# The little - known but rapidly expanding use of computers in mapmaking is technologically similar to the more - uses in designing everything from bolts to satellites.

1. ingenuous
2. recent
3. secure
4. publicized
5. successful


# Although his out numbered troops fought bravely, the general felt he had no choice but to - defeat and - a retreat.

1. oversee - reject
2. acknowledge - order
3. hasten - suggest
4. seek - try
5. overcome - request