Barron's SC

[ruchia]

Please Help -

SC ex. A,

Q11. In a happy, somewhat boisterous celebration of the European discovery of America, the major phase of Columbus Cinquecentennial got off to _ start on Friday.
1. a slow
2. a rousing
3. a reluctant
4. an indifferent
5. a quiet

SPOILER: B

Q13. measurement is, like any other human endeavor, a complex activity, subject to error, not always used _, and frequently misinterpreted and _.

1. Mistakenly... derided
2. erratically... analyzed
3. systematically... organized
4. innovatively... refined
5. prroperly... misunderstood

SPOILER: e

I ruled out E because misinterpreted and misunderstood would be repetition. I thought of C as first option in A, B do not make sense. can anypne please explain???

[mystic87]

#11. boisterous should signal you what kind of word you're looking for. "rousing" is the only one that's synonomous with boisterous

#13. i eliminated based on the second word first. the second blank must be similar to misinterpreted, misunderstood was the only option that's a negative word AND is similar to misinterpreted. (remember the trick for SC is to look for key words? "and" always connects two very similar words)

The reason why C doesn't work is because the sentence would then read "...and frequently...organized". That doesn't convey the mistakes (negative feeling) that the author is trying to project by saying it is frequently misinterpreted. "Systematically" can be used for the first word, but it's "organized" that eliminates C.

This is the only way i can reason the choice...hope it helps.

[do_not_pass_go]

1. If something is happy and boisterious wouldn't it make sense that the next words used to describe it would be positive rather than negative?

Rephrase it like this if their language confuses you:
In a happy celebration commemorating the discovery of America, the major phase of the celebration got off to a ___ start.
Whatever you use to fill in the blank should be positive to match "happy".

2. Are repetitions supposed to be automatically dismissed? I think not.
Rephrase:
Measurement is a complex activity subject to error. It is not always used ___ and is frequently misinterpreted and ____.
Both of these blanks are going to be filled in with some mildly negative words. I like to try filling in the blanks before looking at the choices then finding options that match what I came up with.
I would say: correctly...misread.
Based on my blanks I'd say:
1 is out because "mistaken" does not mean "correctly".
2 is out because "erratically" does not mean "correctly".
3 is out because, while "systematically" is close to "correctly", "organized" is not close to "misread". Organized is NOT negative (remember, the mis in misinterpreted does not get applied to the next term).
4 is out because, while "innovatively" is close to "correctly" in the sense that they are both positive, "refined" is a positive term and we were looking for a negative term.

[ruchia]

Hey thanks mystic87 and do not pass go... that is a good explanation..