Carcass wrote:
Often the subject of an engineer’s or manager’s (i)__________, the conflict between those who design technology and those who market it is all too common. But despite workers’ tendency to joke about this (ii)__________, for companies to function effectively, it is a chasm that must be bridged. Fortunately, a recent study has (iii)__________ways by which companies can resolve some of their cross-departmental differences, so that they now have more of a blueprint for internal efficacy.
Blank (i) |
Blank (ii) |
Blank (iii) |
A. woeful lament |
D. pedagogy |
G. researched |
B. angry tirade |
E. ineptitude |
H. diffused |
C. wry remark |
F. schism |
I. delineated |
What we have is an excellent three-blank text completion question. To find the right answers, let us deploy
IMS's four-step technique.
STEP #1 ->
STORYBOARDLet us read and understand the story first. The story talks of a conflict that is common between those who design technology and those who market it. This conflict is subject of some action of the engineer or manager. What this action is is something we need to figure out. Nonetheless, the story goes on to say that the workers tend to joke about this conflict (we can infer this from the previous sentence), and the conflict being spoken of is a
chasm (gap) that must be bridged. The final sentence speaks of a recent study that has fortunately come up with a solution. The companies can resolve some of their cross-departmental differences thanks to this study; they therefore also have more of a blueprint for internal
efficacy (effectiveness).
Now that we have grasped what the story is all about, let us proceed to the second step.
STEP #2 ->
RELATEWe can now look for clues that tell us what the blanks deal with. We may ask ourselves two questions, 'What does each blank deal with'? 'What information do we have about what the blank deals with?'
So, what does the first blank deal with? It has something to do with the conflict spoken of.
And what information do we have about the conflict? We know from the story that workers tend to joke about this.
Now, what does the the second blank deal with? The second blank should be a synonym of conflict based on the logical sequencing of the first two sentences.
We need not look for clues since we have already figured out what the blank could contain.Finally, what does the final blank deal with? Clearly, it must be a verb that denotes what the recent study did.
And what information do we have about the study? We know it can fortunately resolve some of the cross-departmental differences.
Now that we have an insight into what the blanks deal with, let us proceed to the third step.
STEP #3 ->
PREDICTBased on the clues we have, let us now come up with our own words for the blanks.
The word 'JOKE' could be our word for the first blank based on the clues we have; for the second blank, the word could be 'CONFLICT' itself. And for the final blank, our word could be 'SUGGESTED'.Now that we have come up with our own words, let us proceed to the final step.
STEP #4 ->
ELIMINATEBLANK (i)
All answer options that do not closely match with 'JOKE' can be eliminated. (A) woeful lament -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'a mournful expression of grief' -
ELIMINATE(B) angry tirade -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'an angry speech of condemnatory nature' -
ELIMINATE(C) wry remark -
A CLOSE MATCH -
Means 'a funny comment that is sarcastic or ironic' -
KEEPBLANK (ii)
All answer options that do not closely match with 'CONFLICT' can be eliminated. (D) pedagogy -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'the method of teaching' -
ELIMINATE (E) ineptitude -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'incompetence' -
ELIMINATE(F) schism -
A CLOSE MATCH -
Means 'the division of a group into opposing factions' -
KEEPBLANK (iii)
All answer options that do not closely match with 'SUGGESTED' can be eliminated. (G) researched -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'studied thoroughly' -
ELIMINATE (H) diffused -
NOT A MATCH -
Means 'caused to spread out/disseminated' -
ELIMINATE(I) delineated -
A CLOSE MATCH -
Means 'depicted' -
KEEPHence, C, F, and I are the right answers.