1, There are few (i) ______ thrills to be gleaned from Kafka’s writing, for his characters,
which typically embody ideas, are not fleshed out enough for the reader to become fully
immersed in their plights.
Blank (i)
A, novel
B, vicarious
C, tangential
D, precarious
E, substantive
2, Although the chairman’s new policies cut costs at the time, his strategy was ultimately
revealed to be (i) ______, and his lack of foresight crippled the department in the long
run.
Blank (i)
A. vacuous
B. myopic
C. prescient
D. ingenuous
E. ingenious
3, The coloration strategies of certain invertebrates are remarkably ________ , enabling
individuals to modulate their surface pigmentation in response to shifting substrate
textures and tonalities, and thereby conferring a measurable selective advantage across
ecologically variegated terrain.
Blank (i)
A. labile
B. cryptic
C. vestigial
D. invariant
E. conspicuous
4, Even the most omnivorous collectors of friends ____________ that sometimes it is
necessary to cross out some names from their little black book.
Blank (i)
[Link]
b. acquiesce
c. repudiate
d. ordain
e. imprecate
5, The sculptors of the Neue Sachlichkeit movement approached their subjects with a
rigorously documentary sensibility, foregoing expressive distortion in favor of literal
anatomical fidelity, and in so doing produced works of an unsettling ________ .
Blank (i)
A. probity
B. lyricism
C. mimetic
exactitude
D. sublime
grandeur
E. allegorical
resonance
6, Segmented into autonomous treatises concerning the twilight of Pieter Bruegel's career,
Bordes' catalogue (i) ______ an extensive familiarity with the artist's milieu,
conspicuously omitting any elementary preamble to his biography. Yet, while such an
unapologetically dense approach may (ii) _______ the neophyte, cognoscenti will find
much to admire in the granular analysis of each composition, to say nothing of the
acerbic disparagements Bordes intermittently directs at his rivals. The arena of Davidian
scholarship, much like its formidable protagonist, is seldom a (iii) _______ domain.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. D. G. placid
disseminates embolden
B. E. stymie H.
presupposes polemical
C. repudiates F. petition I.
cultivated
7, While the notion of sovereignty today often carries authoritarian connotations, before
the late eighteenth century the term was generally regarded as more (i) _______ . It was
understood as (ii) _______ descriptor, referring simply to the legitimate authority of the
polity.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
A. pejorative D. a technical
B. E. a neutral
innocuous
C. F. an
contentious exceptional
8, The industrial revolution greatly improved physical living conditions for many
European inhabitants; however, it also initially fomented (i) ________working conditions
and human rights transgression such as (ii)________ labor.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
A. D. intensive
regressive
B. baleful E. juvenile
C. sedate F. cumbersome
9, Telephone-based public opinion polls are notoriously (i) ________ because only a
small subset of population is willing to participate in them and yet they are the most
frequent means to determine whether a given governmental action is (ii) ________ by the
nation or not.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
A. D. dreaded
reverberating
B. stultifying E. endorsed
C. treacherous F.
perceived
10, Ambition is a useful (i) _______ that leads people to great achievement, but it can
also be (ii) _______ force, as Shakespeare showed in his tragedy Macbeth.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
A. tenet D. an ersatz
B. indicator E. a pulsating
C. motivator F. a destructive
11, An eye for seemingly (i) ________ details can make all the difference in marketing a
product. Color, for example, can have (ii) ________ but powerful effects on a person's
mood if not used carefully. Yellow runs the risk of being overpowering, but its
undeniably eye-catching intensity can be an effective tool for a (iii) _________
businessman; Harry N. Allan, who first brought the taxicab to the United States, painted
his cars yellow for precisely this reason.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. D. G. sagacious
disparate inadvertent
B. E. nugatory H.
spurious impecunious
C. trifling F. salutary I. officious
12, Despite being (i) ________ for twisting the English language in wonderfully
nonsensical ways and creating fantastical creatures such as Horton the Elephant, Yertel
the Turtle, and the Lorax, Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel often had decidedly (ii) ________
ideas in mind when composing these tongue-twisting tales for toddlers. By Seuss' own
admission, Horton Hears a Who! is a metaphor for the way the Japanese of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki suffered amidst the atomic bombing that ended World War II, and the title
character of Yertel the Turtle and Other Stories represents no less a villain than Adolph
Hitler. Meanwhile, The Lorax is a very sober and moving (iii) ________ to protect our
natural environment.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. D. G. entreaty
disavowed figurative
B. reputed E. H.
grandiose condemnation
C. lionized F. I. scripture
exuberant