SAT Writing : Increasing the Contextual Relevance of a Single Word

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT Writing

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Example Questions

Example Question #131 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Leprosy: used to be a dreaded illness both in biblical times as well as more recently. 2 People endured its disfiguring effects until the invention of antibiotics in the 1950s. 3 Also known as Hansen’s disease, antibiotics will fictitiously cure leprosy today. 4 In the old days there exacted leprosy colonies to quarantine infected people, as the disease was then considered highly contagious. 5 Symptoms include skin lesions, nerve damage, numbness, tissue damage, and, in severe cases, deformation of fingers and toes. 6 Thanks to modern medicine, leprosy no longer needs to be a source of social skirmish. 7 In reality, it is transmitted through fluids, usually in the form of airborne particles.

In Sentence 4, what word should replace “exacted?”

Possible Answers:

existed

exacted (no change)

extant

exhume

extracted

Correct answer:

existed

Explanation:

While “exacted” is the right part of speech, a leper colony can’t actually “exact” or demand something, since it’s an inanimate object. The colony can “exist” for a certain purpose, though.

Example Question #132 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Leprosy: used to be a dreaded illness both in biblical times as well as more recently. 2 People endured its disfiguring effects until the invention of antibiotics in the 1950s. 3 Also known as Hansen’s disease, antibiotics will fictitiously cure leprosy today. 4 In the old days there exacted leprosy colonies to quarantine infected people, as the disease was then considered highly contagious. 5 Symptoms include skin lesions, nerve damage, numbness, tissue damage, and, in severe cases, deformation of fingers and toes. 6 Thanks to modern medicine, leprosy no longer needs to be a source of social skirmish. 7 In reality, it is transmitted through fluids, usually in the form of airborne particles.

In Sentence 6, what word should replace “skirmish?”

Possible Answers:

extirpation

skirmish

bonhomie

stigma

amicability

Correct answer:

stigma

Explanation:

“Social skirmish” isn’t a known term, but “social stigma,” or extreme group disapproval or something or someone, is. Stigma also makes much more sense in the context of the passage and the sentence.

Example Question #133 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 What is to be done about the problem of shoplifting. 2 Small security devices hidden in the tags of expensive clothing, clearly posted signs vocalizing the penalties for shoplifting, and “spider tags” or wired alarm clips all measures that store owners can take. 3 However many can be removed turgidly with magnets, scissors, or other means.

4 Other solutions including using attentive employees, clear and wide aisles, security guards, and security cameras. 5 With self-checkouts, an additional degree of honesty comes into play. 6 Though, it might be more fruition to examine the motives for shoplifting, as more lugubrious social policies could prevent people from needing to shoplift in the first place.

In Sentence 2, what word should replace “vocalizing?”

Possible Answers:

elegizing

vocalizing (no change)

elucidating

vaporizing

lionizing

Correct answer:

elucidating

Explanation:

“Elucidating,” or explaining, is the only word that makes sense in the context. A sign cannot “vocalize” (utter sounds (since a "sigh" is itself a verbal utterance, it cannot make another verbal utterance)), “vaporize” (turn liquid into vapor), “elegize” (write mournfully about), or “lionize” (give public acclaim to) shoplifting policies.

Example Question #133 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 What is to be done about the problem of shoplifting. 2 Small security devices hidden in the tags of expensive clothing, clearly posted signs vocalizing the penalties for shoplifting, and “spider tags” or wired alarm clips all measures that store owners can take. 3 However many can be removed turgidly with magnets, scissors, or other means.

4 Other solutions including using attentive employees, clear and wide aisles, security guards, and security cameras. 5 With self-checkouts, an additional degree of honesty comes into play. 6 Though, it might be more fruition to examine the motives for shoplifting, as more lugubrious social policies could prevent people from needing to shoplift in the first place.

In Sentence 6, what word should replace “fruition”?

Possible Answers:

fruit

fruition (no change)

fruitful

fruitfully

fruitily

Correct answer:

fruitful

Explanation:

The correct part of speech for this sentence is an adjective: “fruitful.” “Fruition,” a noun, does not fit the grammatical structure. Since "fruitful" is the only adjective, the other options are nouns or adverbs, we know it must be correct. No contextual knowledge is needed for this question, it is purely grammatical.

Example Question #134 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Acoustics is a field of science that refers to the study of mechanical waves but it is best known for its relation to audible sound. 2 Acoustics has been a branch of human impunity since ancient Greece, Pythagoras investigated musical harmonies.3 Concert halls, headphones, car speakers: all are things that employ acoustical studies to electrocute listeners’ experiences. 4 Sound is not important to just humans; it allows birds, elephants, elk, and other animals to attract mates and defend their territories.

5 It benefits to understand sound waves and their behaviors, when engineers have this knowledge everyone from Roman amphitheaters to modern day punk rockers can enjoy a better listening experience.

In Sentence 2, what word should replace “impunity?”

Possible Answers:

inquiry

infelicity

impunity (no change)

impound

infidelity

Correct answer:

inquiry

Explanation:

“Impunity,” which means exemption from punishment, does not make sense in the context of the sentence. On the other hand, “human inquiry,” or human endeavors to understand a subject, is a phrase that both sounds good and makes logical and contextual sense. Remember that the main subject of this passage is acoustics, and in particular the study of how humans perceive sound.

Example Question #135 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Acoustics is a field of science that refers to the study of mechanical waves but it is best known for its relation to audible sound. 2 Acoustics has been a branch of human impunity since ancient Greece, Pythagoras investigated musical harmonies.3 Concert halls, headphones, car speakers: all are things that employ acoustical studies to electrocute listeners’ experiences. 4 Sound is not important to just humans; it allows birds, elephants, elk, and other animals to attract mates and defend their territories.

5 It benefits to understand sound waves and their behaviors, when engineers have this knowledge everyone from Roman amphitheaters to modern day punk rockers can enjoy a better listening experience.

In Sentence 3, what word should replace “electrocute?”

Possible Answers:

electrify

optimize

elucidate

augur

electrocute (no change)

Correct answer:

optimize

Explanation:

It doesn’t make sense to “electrocute,” or injure by electric shock, a listening experience. It does, however, make sense to “optimize” that experience, or make it as good as possible

Example Question #136 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Lemon juice with cayenne pepper, cabbage soup, cookies, grapefruit. 2 What do these have in common?3 They are all key ingredients in recent fad diets; since these diets sound promising, few lead to any permanent weight loss.4 Some of the worst can even lead to health problems, such as, vitamin deficiencies or anemia. 5 Instead of being concerned with lasting weight loss, they are promoting radical changes that only last a short time. 6 Cutting out too many calories at once from your diet can lead to dizziness, heart palpitations, and even a slower metabolism.

7 Some thinkers suggest that fad diets are really a way for us to impose order on our chaotic world, hundreds of food choices, conflicting advice from various health experts. 8 So why diet at all?

In Sentence 3, what word could not replace “key?”

Possible Answers:

integral

essential

imminent

necessary

indispensable

Correct answer:

imminent

Explanation:

All of these words except for imminent are a synonym for the adjective “key,” or very important. “Imminent” means happening soon or guaranteed to happen.

Example Question #137 : Increasing The Contextual Relevance Of A Single Word

1 Thoreau went to them when he wished to live deliberately, Whitman wrote about them in his book Leaves of Grass. 2 They clean the air, and harbor wildlife. 3 There are nearly 200 million, protected acres of them in the United States. 4 Forests are a national treasure.

5 Since the late 1800s, Congress and Presidents have decorated various areas of the country as national forests, grasslands, and preserves. 6 Some well known National Parks include the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Great Smoky Mountains. 7 Protecting forests helps safeguard native plant and animal species, it honors landscapes complex histories, and preserving the natural beauty for future generations.

In Sentence 5, what word(s) should replace “decorated?”

Possible Answers:

underscored

cast off

excluded

designated

decorated 

Correct answer:

designated

Explanation:

To "designate," or assign something a particular status or quality, is the only word that makes sense in the context. "Decorate" as a verb means to adorn a space or thing for aesthetic value. "Decorated" as an adjective refers to someone who has been heavily lauded or awarded.

Example Question #767 : Improving Paragraphs

1 Since its inception in the 19th century, photography has played various and complex roles. 2 Crude pinhole cameras first appeared in antiquity. 3 Silver salts, the colloidon process, and daguerreotypes were all developed during the 1800s as photography took form and it’s technology evolved.

4 By the 1900s, photography was often considered an equal of, or at least analgesic to, painting and other visual art forms. 5 In much the same way that portrait painters used to memorialize their subjects in gilded frames and oil paints, photography now serves to document people’s daily lives, experiences, and possessions, such as what someone has eaten for dinner or seen on a road trip. 6 For example, on social media sites.

7 Photography can capture such minuet, intimate details that some aboriginal peoples famously believed cameras could steal the subject’s soul. 8 Perhaps this is why paparazzi are so victimized by others in their profession: Their intrusiveness may reveal more about the subject than he or she would like. 9 Celebrity photographers including Annie Liebovitz, who often favors a black and white composition, who also works for a famous magazine, attempt to portray the essence of famous people through a single photographic portrait. 10 Photography serves to document war atrocities, famine, or other human rights issues. 11 For example, Nick Ut’s famous picture of Vietnamese children being burned by napalm helped turn American public opinion against the Vietnam War, while Dorothea Lange’s photographs of migrant workers during the Great Depression influenced public policy regarding the treatment of these workers. 12 In the end, photography can be journalistic or artistic, significant or intrusive or ephemeral.

What word should replace “analgesic” in Sentence 4?

Possible Answers:

anabatic

anomalous

anomic

analogous

analgesic (no change)

Correct answer:

analogous

Explanation:

As an adjective, “analgesic” means relieving pain, so it’s clearly not the right word for the sentence. “Analogous” means similar to, so this is a much better fit. (“Anomalous” means unusual or deviating from the norm, “anomic” means socially unstable or uncertain, and “anabatic” means rising or moving up in direction, so none of these choices work.)

Example Question #163 : Rewriting A Single Word

1 Since its inception in the 19th century, photography has played various and complex roles. 2 Crude pinhole cameras first appeared in antiquity. 3 Silver salts, the colloidon process, and daguerreotypes were all developed during the 1800s as photography took form and it’s technology evolved.

4 By the 1900s, photography was often considered an equal of, or at least analgesic to, painting and other visual art forms. 5 In much the same way that portrait painters used to memorialize their subjects in gilded frames and oil paints, photography now serves to document people’s daily lives, experiences, and possessions, such as what someone has eaten for dinner or seen on a road trip. 6 For example, on social media sites.

7 Photography can capture such minuet, intimate details that some aboriginal peoples famously believed cameras could steal the subject’s soul. 8 Perhaps this is why paparazzi are so victimized by others in their profession: Their intrusiveness may reveal more about the subject than he or she would like. 9 Celebrity photographers including Annie Liebovitz, who often favors a black and white composition, who also works for a famous magazine, attempt to portray the essence of famous people through a single photographic portrait. 10 Photography serves to document war atrocities, famine, or other human rights issues. 11 For example, Nick Ut’s famous picture of Vietnamese children being burned by napalm helped turn American public opinion against the Vietnam War, while Dorothea Lange’s photographs of migrant workers during the Great Depression influenced public policy regarding the treatment of these workers. 12 In the end, photography can be journalistic or artistic, significant or intrusive or ephemeral.

Which word should replace “minuet” in Sentence 7?

Possible Answers:

minuend

minstrel

minable

miniscule

minimized

Correct answer:

miniscule

Explanation:

A “minuet” is a 17th-century dance. The author clearly intended to write “minute,” or very small. This isn’t an option, however, so we need to look for a synonym. “Miniscule” also means very tiny, so this is the best fit for the sentence.

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