In this sentence, the best answer choice is one that describes the weather as not normal or strange. The best answer choice is "peculiar," which means strange. None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: "paltry" means small and refers to quantities; "prominent" means important; "ravenous" means starving or very hungry; and "inept" means not having any skill.

In this sentence, we are looking for an answer choice that explains the effect of eating too much sugar on someone's health. The only answer choice that makes sense is "detrimental," which means harmful. None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: "feeble" means weak; "moral" means honest; "solitary" means alone; and "thrifty" means not wanting to spend a lot of money.

The word that best fits this answer choice describes the farming area that the sentence's subject likes to live in. The best answer choice is "rural," which means having to do with the country as opposed to the city. None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: "urban" means having to do with cities as opposed to the country; "prominent" means obvious or important; "egregious" means surprisingly terrible; and "mountainous" means full of mountains.

The answer choice for this sentence needs to explain why anyone who drank the river water could get sick. The answer choice that makes the most sense is "toxic," which means poisonous. None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: "captivating" means interesting; "tentative" means unsure; "oblivious" means completely unaware of something; and "mediocre" means so-so or of average quality when higher quality was expected.

The context of the sentence describes how some people come from a “fortunate” background with many “advantages,” and other people do not. Those people who do not could be said to be “disadvantaged.” The prefix "dis-" is a negative prefix; it causes a word to mean the opposite of its root word, so “disadvantaged” is the opposite of “advantaged.” None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: “beneficial” means helpful; “benevolent” means good-natured; “benign” means harmless; and “despised” means hated. (The prefix "ben-" means good.)

When the weather is wet and cloudy, we call the conditions “overcast.” None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: “stifling” means very hot; “frigid” means very cold; and “lukewarm” means of a middling temperature, often not as hot as one would like. "Lukewarm" often refers to the temperature of liquids or beverages; for instance, one might call a cup of coffee or tea that has slightly cooled off since it was prepared or served "lukewarm."

Because the author is excited to see his family again and tells us he has been on the road for years, we can assume that he is headed for home or “homeward” bound. The suffix "-ward" means in the direction of or towards. So, “westward” means headed west and “eastward” means headed east. None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: “outlying” means distant or unusual; and a "metropolis" is a large city.

Here, you are looking for an adverb that could describe the act of Alia's running.  

The word "despite" is your clue word; it should set you thinking about what someone with a sprained ankle would or should not be able to do.  

Since a sprained ankle hurts, you would not expect them to run quickly, painlessly, or gracefully.  

Of the answer choices you have, which one seems the closest to these types of words?  

Both "drowsily" (which means sleepily or tiredly) and "awkwardly" (which means clumsily or with difficulty) would be expected ways for someone who has a hurt ankle to run, so they should be eliminated—we are looking for the word that matches with the clue "despite."

"Securely" (meaning with safety) should be eliminated, as it has nothing to do with running.  

That leaves you with "eagerly," which means with excitement or in a way that shows that someone is enthusiastic about doing something. This fits with the context clues, as someone who is in pain would not be expected to run with excitement.

In this question, the clue word is "because," which tells you that you are looking for a word that fits with the rest of the sentence in tone. If the rest of the sentence tells you that Bobby feels positively about spelling tests, then you are looking for a positive word. If the sentence tells you that Bobby does not like spelling tests, then you are looking for a negative word.  

The sentence tells you that Bobby "dreaded" spelling tests, which means he was very apprehensive about them. We now know that we are looking for a word that would mean something similar to "feeling fear."  

Now it's up to you to look through the choices and identify the best word choice for the context.

"Absurd" (foolish or illogical) and "blatant" (very obvious) are really off-base, but they could look like good answer choices if you didn't know what they mean.  

You are left with "composed" and "anxious." These happen to be opposites—"composed" means calm or under control, whereas "anxious" means worried or nervous. If you didn't read the context clues carefully, you could end up choosing the wrong answer.  

However, since we know we are looking for a word having to do with fear, we can choose "anxious" with confidence!

There are two key context clues in this sentence. First, the word "however" lets us know that Mrs. Howe was acting in a way she usually does not. Second, we know that the way she acts is usually very different from "cool and distant." That means we're looking for a word that means roughly the opposite of "cool and distant."

Looking at the answer choices, we can see that the only word that fits this description is "cordial," which means warm and welcoming.  

However, if you did not know the definition of cordial, you could find the answer through process of elimination.  

If you were to consider the word "cool" in a different context, it could mean modern and hip rather than unwelcoming or emotionless, which might lead you to select "outdated" (old-fashioned) as the answer.  However, if you used the context clues to infer the correct definition of cool in this sentence, you would be able to eliminate this choice as it has nothing to do with being distant vs. warm.

If you had ignored the context clue word "however," you might be looking for a word that has a similar meaning to "cool and distant", leading you to pick "aloof" (not friendly). Once we consider we're looking for the opposite of "cool and distant," and if we know the definition of this word, then we can eliminate this choice.

And finally, you could eliminate "fickle" (changing one's mind often), since this word has nothing to do with how a host might treat his or her guests in this context.