SAT Critical Reading : Style, Intensity, and Connotation in One-Blank Sentences
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Example Question #131 : Sentence Completion
Choose the word that best completes the following sentence.
The room was a veritable __________; the temperature continued to rise to amounts so deadly that plastic began to melt and every animal would pass out within seconds.
punishment
persecution
sauna
misery
inferno
inferno
The adjective “veritable” is used to intensify noun that it describes. It could be translated “quite truly.” (It is related to words like “verity”, “veridical”, and “verify.” All of these come from the Latin "verus," meaning true.) Since the room was deadly in its heat, it is best called an "inferno," at least metaphorically speaking. An inferno is generally a large fire. The word is related to the late Latin word for “Hell.” It communicates the idea of great amounts of heat and does so without the “health benefits” that are somewhat connoted by “sauna.”
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