OE


This is a difficult question with few direct clues. The most concrete starting point is the detour roadsign "however" at the beginning of the second sentence, which signals a contrast between the original "misapprehension" entertained by the nobility and the "crediting" of some group of people with the work of empire building. The "misapprehension" is made explicit in the second blank, so that blank will be filled by a word that offers a contrast to "doing work." In order for the first and second sentences to express conflicting ideas, they must discuss the same group of people. Therefore, the first and third blanks should be synonyms or closely related.

Predict the answers

Only general predictions are possible for this difficult question. The word in the second blank should contrast with "doing work" somehow. The words in the first and third blanks should be either synonyms or at least very closely related.

Select the best matches from among the choices

Among the three sound-alike choices for the second blank, only (E) indolent, or "habitually lazy, idle," contrasts with "doing work," so it is the correct answer. Neither (D) insolent, "insulting and arrogant" nor (F) indigent, "impoverished," provides the necessary contrast.

For the first and third blanks, the only possible pair of synonyms is (I) plebeians and (C) underclass, both of which mean "commoners of low status," and are the other two correct answers. (A) esurient, meaning "greedy," (B) philanthropic, meaning "humanitarian," (G) patricians, meaning "aristocrats," and (H) paeans, meaning "songs of praise," do not yield a pair of synonyms and are thus all incorrect.

Confirm your answers by reading them into the sentence

For much of the Early Middle Ages, there was, among the nobility, a misperception of the underclass as indolent. However, this misapprehension began to be corrected during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, when the plebeians were widely credited with doing the work of building Frederick's empire.