ISEE Upper Level Verbal : Adjectives and Adverbs in One-Blank Sentences

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ISEE Upper Level Verbal

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Example Questions

Example Question #105 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

Although the prosecutor acted as though his evidence was conclusive, in reality it was based only on __________ facts related to the defendant’s work schedule on the day of the crime.

Possible Answers:

forged

falsified

distorted

irregular

circumstantial

Correct answer:

circumstantial

Explanation:

When the facts of a criminal case are not conclusive but carry force, they are often called “circumstantial.” More strictly, this word means that the evidence has to deal with data pertaining to the circumstances in question. While the word can mean that the data is comprehensive (if it really does describe those circumstances in a thorough way), when applied to a court case, this kind of evidence does not provide deductive certainty. For instance, you might know that the defendant was in France and that the murder happened in France. If that is all that you have for an argument that the defendant committed the murder (in France), your case is rather weak indeed.

Example Question #106 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

Zachary had an extremely __________ attitude, always using small words with his friend because he believed them to be too stupid to understand his natural way of speaking.

Possible Answers:

critical

nasty

arrogant

judgmental

condescending

Correct answer:

condescending

Explanation:

The key thing to note here is that Zachary treats his friends in a way that judges them to be less intellectually able than him and that implies this judgment in his very way of speaking. It could be said that he acts in a manner so as to “step down to their level.” When someone is “condescending,” he or she do just that, always with the implication that it is accompanied by the feeling of superiority in comparison with the others.

Example Question #107 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

When Patrick committed any small social faux pas, his mother would overreact and be utterly __________ by his actions.

Possible Answers:

dispirited

enervated

depressed

mortified

angered

Correct answer:

mortified

Explanation:

A “faux pas” is a social “false step,” an embarrassing action. The sense of the sentence is that Patrick’s mother was utterly embarrassed by his actions. The other options imply more than is justified by the expression “faux pas.” When someone is “mortified,” he or she is embarrassed, often in a strong sense. The word literally means “to make dead,” hear as though the actions would “embarrass to death.” The “mort-” portion of the word is related to the Latin for “death” and is found in English words like “mortal,” “immortal,” and “morgue.”

Example Question #108 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

Selena was not merely happy to finish the project at last; she was quite __________ about its completion.

Possible Answers:

elated

satisfied

content

peaceful

eased

Correct answer:

elated

Explanation:

This sentence implies an intensification from the first independent clause to the second by using the words “not merely.” The word being intensified is “happy.” To say that Selena is “very happy,” the best option is “elated.” This word is derived from the Latin for meaning “carried out of.” When someone is elated, he or she is so emotional that he or she is “carried out of himself or herself.” Another way that it is expressed is to say that such a person is “ecstatically happy,” which also means “happy in the sense of ‘standing outside of oneself.’” Sometimes, you might here older people say, “He was beside himself with joy.” This expresses the same sense.

Example Question #111 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

The whole affair was so __________ that Daria could not take it seriously at all.

Possible Answers:

depressing

quizzical

unbeknownst

unprofessional

ludicrous

Correct answer:

ludicrous

Explanation:

The key expression in this sentence is “not take it seriously at all.” Since the affair is said not to be taken seriously “at all,” it must be a rather laughable affair or at least one that is very inconsequential (to Daria, at least). When something is “ludicrous,” it is a “laughable” matter. While we cannot say for certain that the affair was ridiculous or laughable, still this kind of “lack of gravity” is implied by the aforementioned “not . . . at all.” This is far better than “depressing” or the other (even worse) options. The word “ludicrous,” actually comes from the Latin for “game,” so a ludicrous affair could be said to be “just a game” (at least in the eye of the beholder).

Example Question #112 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

Lauren found Samuel’s remarks to be extremely ___________, making the topic much more understandable.

Possible Answers:

scholarly

pedantic

intellectual

illuminating

academic

Correct answer:

illuminating

Explanation:

All of the wrong options are those that most directly pertain to education, academia, or the intellect. The key thing to note is that the remarks make the topic understandable. When one thing helps to make another understandable, that first thing is said to “illuminate” the other. The sense of the word is taken from the metaphorical image of shining a light on a dark (obscure) subject matter.

Example Question #113 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

George acted as though he were __________, though his friends knew that he was a human like anyone else, making many mistakes daily.

Possible Answers:

celestial

grandiose

god-like

theological

infallible

Correct answer:

infallible

Explanation:

The key word in this sentence is “mistakes.” The only contrast being implied is that George did not seem to think that he could make mistakes (though his friends knew better). When someone is “infallible” that person does not make mistakes. The word “fallible” means “capable of making mistakes” and is related to “false” as well as “fallacy” and “fallacious.” The “in-” functions here as a negative, making “in-fallible” to mean “not-fallible.”

Example Question #114 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

Since Nathanael had little time, he planned his schedule very __________ in order to avoid wasting even the slightest moment.

Possible Answers:

efficiently

reflectively

amazingly

carefully

insightfully

Correct answer:

efficiently

Explanation:

The only thing that we can say about Nathanael is that he is avoiding any waste of time. Any other description might hold (that it is amazing, insightfully done, etc), but that goes beyond what we are given. The best answer is “efficiently,” which describes someone who is very productive while using the least amount of resources (money, time, etc).

Example Question #115 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

When teaching her students how to draw graphs, the first thing that the teacher emphasized was that the X axis and Y axis had to be __________ with each other, crossing at a right angle usually found at the bottom left of a graph.

Possible Answers:

mixed up

beside

perpendicular

parallel

disproportionate

Correct answer:

perpendicular

Explanation:

The teacher explains that the axes of a graph "[cross] at a right angle," so we need to pick out an adjective that describes the relationship between two lines that do exactly that. "Parallel" cannot be the correct answer, then, because "parallel," when used of lines, planes, surfaces, or objects, means " side by side and having the same distance continuously between them," so "parallel" is the antonym of the word we're looking for. "Perpendicular," an adjective which means "at an angle of 90° to a given line, plane, or surface," best describes the orientation of the two lines, so "perpendicular" is the correct answer.

Example Question #116 : Adjectives And Adverbs In One Blank Sentences

The book includes long footnotes that serve as a place for _________ information like tangents, recommended reading, and notes on the work's historical context, none of which are absolutely necessary to the text itself.

Possible Answers:

pardonable

joyful

ancillary

winding

crucial

Correct answer:

ancillary

Explanation:

We can infer that because the footnotes allow room for various types of information of which "none . . . are absolutely necessary to the text itself," we can infer that we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "extraneous" or "extra." "Crucial," then, cannot be the correct answer, because "crucial" is an antonym of "extraneous" and "extra." "Ancillary," however, is an adjective that can mean " additional; subsidiary," and because it best describes the nature of the information the book's footnotes contain, "ancillary" is the correct answer.

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