Sentence Completion

With Sentence Completion questions you have vocabulary skills involved; however, here you have a context. Here you have an advantage.  The advantage is that you are able to read the English language well and know what goes into making a good sentence.

In the easy section you can read a sentence through and think generically about what word or word type you should substitute

For instance the sentence:

In temperament they were a complete contrast: the older man was quiet, courteous, and slightly_____________ , the younger man was talkative, _______________, and quite gregarious.

(A) rude ....... indignant            (B) conceited ...... subdued
 C) aloof ..... flamboyant           (D) sentimental ...... withdrawn
 (E) impolite ...... snobbish

The SAT always plants CLUE WORDS, words you can use as clues to what words will be the correct answer choice. Looking at the second blank first (a technique which frequently saves time), we can see we want a word that denotes a social, outgoing person, someone who is “flamboyant.”   “Indignant,” “snobbish,” “subdued,” and “withdrawn’ don’t work.  So “flamboyant” has to be the answer.

In the difficult section, you have to use more inference with the clue words. You will encounter a sentence like this:

Our power as individual consumers is ________, we cannot choose among the array of goods displayed before us have a __________ influence on the basic decisions of large corporations about which goods they will produce.

(A) essential ..... minimal
(B) narrow ...... telling
(C) global ..... compelling
(D) convenient ..... profitable
(E) liberal ..... dramatic
 

That's a horrible sentence. Any teacher you have ever had in your life would write awkward across that and say "That's an awkward sentence, I don't like that sentence, rephrase it."

You can't look at it that way. You have got to look at it and say that I have clues in here - words or phrases I can infer from to deduce a correct answer. Here where we're talking about "our power as individual consumers" is something and then it says that "we cannot"do something. If I say I can't do something, I speaking about something limiting or negative. So, we're looking for a negative. Essential, global, convenient, and liberal were possible on this test, but they are all positive or expansive. The only negative among the first choices is "narrow." You know that's the answer. You don't really care what that sentence means. You want the points out of it. So, in the difficult section you are going to have one or two sentences you are not going to concern yourself much making sense out of. Rather you are going to look at them like a detective and pull those answers out of them.

The other thing to remember in sentence completions are WORDS OF CONTRAST. Words of contrast indicate that there is a change of logic in the sentence. Like "but, in spite of, yet, despite, nevertheless, ironically, whereas, on the contrary, although, by contrast, however, unfortunately, and on the other hand" are all examples of words of contrast. Anytime you see those words, your antennae need to go up. They are flipping the direction of that sentence, going from positive to negative, or from active to passive.
 

            but
            in spite of
            yet
            despite
            nevertheless
            ironically
            whereas
            on the contrary
            although
            by contrast
            however
            unfortunately
            on the other hand

For instance: "He was a great looking guy, but he hadn't taken a bath in a while." The "but" flips that sentence around.

So, in the Sentence Completion section, look for CLUE WORDS and WORDS OF CONTRAST.   Once you practice looking for these, the only reall problem left for you will be the difficult vocabulary words.