OE


Read the sentence, looking for clues

The word in the blank will describe the "venue" that the concert was moved to. The key phrase in this sentence, "larger crowds than anticipated," indicates that the event needed to move to a bigger venue.

Predict an answer

Predict a word meaning "large."

Select the choice that most closely matches your prediction

(A) commodious means "expansive" or "capacious" and therefore matches the prediction. This might be an unfamiliar vocabulary word, so you may have to approach this question by eliminating the other choices. (B) austere means "harshly simple"; although this may describe a venue, it says nothing about the size, so it's incorrect. Although (C) grandiloquent, has grand- in it, the word actually refers to an extravagant or pompous manner of speaking as indicated by the ending -loquent, so it has nothing to do with size. (D) sanctioned means "allowed" or "approved," and in an odd quirk of the English language, a sanction can also be a penalty. Neither of these two contrasting meanings implies anything about the size of the new venue, so this choice is wrong. (E) egregious means "outstandingly bad." You may have heard the phrase an egregious error, meaning "a serious mistake." The event's organizers would not knowingly move the concert to a terrible venue.

Check your answer

Facing far larger crowds than anticipated, the event staff reneged on their agreement with the original locale and moved the concert to a more commodious venue.