[b]### How to Attack This Sentence Equivalence Question

**Sentence:**

> “The nation was marked by ________, which intruded upon every aspect of life: there was little that had not fallen prey to corruption.”

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### 1. Use the “equation” idea with the colon

On the GRE, a **colon** often works like an **equals sign**:

> **Before colon ≈ After colon**

So here:

> “The nation was marked by ________, which intruded upon every aspect of life”
> **≈**
> “there was little that had not fallen prey to corruption.”

That means the blank must basically mean **corruption** or **a corrupt condition**.

You can even write it mentally as:

> blank ≈ “corruption everywhere”

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### 2. Lock in the part of speech and tone

“The nation was marked by ________, **which intruded**...”

* The blank must be a **noun** (a quality/condition).
* The tone is clearly **negative** (everything “fallen prey to corruption”).

So your target meaning is:

> “a negative noun meaning widespread corruption or bribery.”

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### 3. Now check the answer choices and find the *pair of synonyms*

Definitions:

* **venality** – willingness to accept bribes; corruption
* **graft** – political corruption; using power for personal gain

Both fit:

> blank ≈ “corruption everywhere”

So the correct pair is:

> ✅ **venality** and **graft**

The other words don’t match the “corruption” idea (jingoism, stigmatization, volubility) or mean the opposite (probity = integrity).

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### 4. General strategy One should follow

1. **Treat the colon like an equation sign**:
part before colon **≈** part after colon.
2. **Predict your own simple word** for the blank before looking at choices.
Here: blank ≈ “corruption.”
3. **Choose two options** that both:

* Match your predicted meaning, and
* Are close in meaning to **each other**.

Note: I used ChatGPT for this explanation.