A couple of SCs from BB

[shovik]

15. Even though the general's carefully qualified public statement could hardly be ___, some people took ___ it.
A) respected ... liberties with
B) inoffensive ... umbrage at
C) faulted ... exception to
D) credited ... potshots at
E) dismissed ... interest in

Official Answer:

SPOILER: C

C
Even though is the key....look for opposites
faultd and exception to fits the bill...

[shovik]

13) Rhetoric often seems to ___ over reason in a heated debate, with both sides ___ in hyperbole.

a) cloud : subsiding
b) prevail : yielding
c) triumph : engaging
d) reverberate : clamoring
e) trample : tangling

Official Answer:

SPOILER: C

14) 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 ___.

(A) bereft..theatricality
(B) composed..adversity
(C) full..circumstantiality
(D) deprived .. polarity
(E) devoid .. neutrality

Official Answer:

SPOILER: E

C is correct...Rhetoric supercedes reason..so the embroiled parties engage in hyperbole..thus rhetoric truimphs over reason

E is the correct answer..
Comparison between extremeties show that melodramas present manifestations of antipodes..thus it is devoid of neutrality

[shovik]

The following are very common. But I seem to miss the magic trick behind solving sc questions.

1) Changes of fashion and public taste are often ___ and resistant to analysis, and yet they are among the most ___ gauges of the state of the public's collective consciences.
A) transparent ... useful
B) ephemeral ... sensitive
C) faddish ... underutilized
D) arbitrary ... problemetic
E) permanent ... reliable

Official Answer:

SPOILER: B

I cant relate the first blank to "resistant to analysis". Should be something like hard to grasp or understand like transparent or arbitrary.

2) The old man could not have been accused of ___ his affection; his conduct toward the child betrayed his ___ her.
A) lavishing ... fondness for
B) sparing ... tolerance of
C) rationing ... antipathy for
D) stinting ... adoration of
E) promising ... dislike of

Official Answer:

SPOILER: D

A seems to be tempting though. I admit I have trouble understanding the whole sentence.

3) While the delegate clearly sought to ___ the optimism that has emerged recently, she stopped short of suggesting that the conference was near collapse and might produce nothing of significance.
A) substantiate
B) dampen
C) encourage
D) elucidate
E) rekindle

Official Answer:

SPOILER: B

A seemed to be the most tempting one. I am curious to know how you earthlings get over this kind of temptation.

4) In recent decades the idea that Cezanne influenced Cubism has been caught in the ___ between art historians who credit Braque with its invention and those who ___ Picasso.

A) crossfire ... tout
B) interplay ... advocate
C) paradox ... attribute
D) deliberation ... attribute
E) tussle ... substitute

Official Answer:

SPOILER: A

Closed one between A and E.

5) The discovery that, friction excluded, all bodies fall at the same rate is so simple to state and to grasp that there is a tendency to ___ its significance.
A) underrate
B) controle
C) reassess
D) praise
E) eliminate

Official Answer:

SPOILER: A

6) Although scientists claim that the seemingly ___ language of their reports is more precise than the figurative language of fiction, the language of science, like all language, is inherently ___
A) ornamental ... subtle
B) unidimensional... unintelligible
C) symbolic ... complex
D) literal ... allusive
E) subjective ... metaphorical

Official Answer:

SPOILER: D

I wonder why not C

2)D
The old man's conduct may betray i)his love/fondness/adoration or his hate/antipathy towards the girl.
Whatever this may be..the sentence suggests that
a)if the man did adore her...he showered affection on her
b)if the man hated her...he did not shower any affection on her..
i.e. his behaviour was not hypocritical.Thus D

3)The sentence suggests that the speaker ended up going to unwarranted extremes
she intended to "dampen" the enthusiasm but ended up ...
It will not be substantiate...
The sentence suggests that the speaker knew what she wanted to do but went to an extreme(note The candidate clearly sought to.....)Thus she did not want to substantiate the enthusiam in any way..

4)Definitely a)
Why should it be substitute?Rather the other school of thought would promote/tout Picasso

5)a
a and e are possible but e is an extreme and a is more apt

6)

[shovik]

Cynics believe that people who ___ compliments do so in order to be praised twice
A) bask in
B) give out
C) despair of
D) gloat over
E) shrug off

Official Answer:

SPOILER: E

Seemed to be a tie between B and E

Any language is a conspiracy against experience in the sense that it is a collective attempt to ------ experience by reducing it into discrete parcels.

(A) extrapolate
(B) transcribe
(C) complicate
(D) amplify
(E) manage

Official Answer:

SPOILER: E

Totally lost. Found no explanation here in this forum.

I guess we have to eliminate here..
think of experience as an enemy of sorts
Cover the given alternatives..
Get your own words...like tackle,nullify( a bit extreme no doubt),take on come to mind
manage is the closest to this


To have true disciples, a thinker must not be too ----: any effective intellectual leader depends on the ability of other people to----thought processes that did not originate with them.
(A) popular.. dismiss
(B) methodical.. interpret
(C) idiosyncratic.. reenact (what is reenact????)
(D) self-confident.. revitalize
(E) pragmatic.. discourage

Official Answer:

SPOILER: D

The clue lies in an effective leader should depend on others abilities...this suggests that he should not rely on himself /his own interpretations thus d)

In the early twentieth century, the discovery of radium ___ popular imagination; not only was its discoverer, Marie Curie, idolized, but its market value ___ that of the rarest gemstone.
A) stormed ... sank to
B) horrified ... approached
C) taxed ... was equal to
D) enflamed ... exceeded
E) escaped ... was comparable to

Official Answer:

SPOILER: D

How can imagination be enflamed?
D is correct ..the first two options that came to my notice were a) and d) bt a) has sank to(incorrect) so it is d)
enflamed means set on fire/stimulated/completely conquered/enraptured

It is almost always desirable to increase the yield the of a crop if ___ increases are not also necessary in energy, labor, and other inputs of crop production.
A) predetermined
B) commensurate
C) compatible
D) measured
E) equivocal

Official Answer:

SPOILER: B

Confused between b and c.

b) is correct..compatible increases are not necessary doesn't make ense..if they are compatible..why should they not be necessary...it has to be commensurate..

[amishera2007]

18. In parts of Arctic, the land grades into the landfast ice so ___ that you can walk off the coast and not know you are over the hidden sea.

a) permanently
b) imperceptibly
c) irregularly
d) precariously
e) slightly

Official Answer:

SPOILER: b

19. Like many eighteenth-century scholars who lived by cultivating those in power, Winckelmann neglected to neutralize, by some ___ gesture of comradeship, the resentment his peers were bound to feel because of his ___ the high and mighty.

a) quixotic ... intrigue with
b) enigmatic ... familiarity with
c) propitiatory ... involvement with
d) salutary ... questioning of
e) unfeigned ... sympathy for

Official Answer:

SPOILER: c

[Hopeless]

16. Even those who disagreed with Carmen's views rarely faulted her for expressing them, for the positions she took were as ______ as they were controversial.
(A) complicated (B) political (C) subjective (D) commonplace (E) thoughtful

Its e
the disagreement part leads to controversial
the fact that they did not fault her suggests that her stance was thoughtful

Why not "subjective"? something subjective may cause disagreement in views.... but I am confused about how "thoughtful" works here...

[ragram]

Its a toss up between e and b
Im tempted to go for assertive...
Political theory clearly lay down some rules..daily politics to be clear, thorough, and consistent
Thus we cd say that theories are assertive...or tidy(as in they categorically and neatly lay down the rules)
Im still with assertive..

Yes, even i chose it as B. But the right answer is E) Tidy.

Then i say the exact meaning of "tidy" which is neat, orderly, trim, acceptable, clearly organized and fairly large. This fits the gap very cogently.

[Louistang]

To have true disciples, a thinker must not be too ----: any effective intellectual leader depends on the ability of other people to----thought processes that did not originate with them.
(A) popular.. dismiss
(B) methodical.. interpret
(C) idiosyncratic.. reenact (what is reenact????)
(D) self-confident.. revitalize
(E) pragmatic.. discourage
in this one, reenact means in webster:
1 : to enact (as a law) again
2 : to act or perform again
3 : to repeat the actions of (an earlier event or incident)
and i think the answer is C, as it appears in my book. the sentence after colon tells that good leader should be able to "second blank" different thought process, thus idiosyncratic is better than self-confident. reenact equals revitalize here.
personal statement:some of the questions are not numbered.

[ragram]

Yes the answer should be C for the above question. Because if a leader depends on the ability of other people, he should be eccentric to do so.

[LightningRod]

As a side note, reenact, means to repeat something by mimicking.