Retired Moderator
Joined: 07 Jun 2014
Posts: 4813
Given Kudos: 0
WE:Business Development (Energy and Utilities)
Re: The SWAT team entered the dark building on high alert, their
[#permalink]
13 Sep 2017, 17:46
Explanation
The blank describes the recesses of the rooms, so recycle the clue dark. Both gloomy and stygian can mean dark, so choices (C) and (D) give you appropriate, equivalent sentences. If you don’t know stygian—it’s the adjectival form of Styx, the river crossed to get to the Greek afterlife, and so literally means dark as hell—use your POE. Choices (E) and choice (F) are synonyms, but aren’t supported by the sentence.
The recesses may be empty, but, again, that can’t be supported by the sentence; eliminate choice (A). Cacophonous means having a harsh or discordant sound, so choice (B) wouldn’t make sense in a room where the agents’ ears were attuned to the slightest disturbance.
Hence options C and D are correct!