Putting it Together

Let’s try an easy one first.

For centuries now, cancer has ______ scientists. Unlike most microbes, cancer can spread to the ________ organism, making it very difficult for scientists to find a way to attack the cancer without __________ any of the affected organs.

1	2	3
(A) intrigued	(A) actual	(A) denigrating
(B) confounded	(B) systemic	(B) eradicating
(C) corrupted	(C) entire	(C) harming

This is a straightforward text completion, as far as the actual sentences go. Still, break it up in your own words: scientists can’t seem to find a way to cure cancer so it has baffled, confused them. The problem is the cancer affects the whole body so if the scientists try to attack the cancer they may end up harming the body.

Like that, I’ve broken down the sentence and can now put my own words in for each blank:

1. confused 2.. whole 3.. harming


For the first blank (B) confounded means to be really confused.

For the second blank (C) entire is a synonym for whole.

In the last blank, (C) harming is the word I came up with.

Seems easy? Well, had you tried initially plugging the words into the sentence without breaking the sentence down in your own words, you may have been likely to choose (A) intrigued for the first blank and (B) eradicating for the third blank. In the case of eradicating, note that the scientists are trying to eradicate the cancer, not the organisms.

Okay, here’s a toughie. Remember, try as much as possible to follow the 5 essential strategies.

Giacomo’s concerti, much like the composer himself, were a _____ affair. Fits of passion would, without warning, give way to sudden idylls, as though the composer had been trying to ______ the very conflicts that had raged within his own being.

1	2
(A) mercurial	(A) exorcise
(B) rambling	(B) mirror
(C) torrid	(C) foreshadow

First off, avoid diving into the first blank of the text completion. After you’ve read the sentence you should put it into your own words… Giacomo and his concertos are similar. They both have sudden, major contrasts. Very passionate and then very calm.

Now that I’ve broken the sentence down, I must go back to the blanks and find my own words for the text completion. In this case, I find the first blank easier to deal with. I know the word has to be unpredictable and almost bi-polar.

I look at the answer choices and I see a very popular GRE vocabulary word, mercurial (if you don’t know this word already you should make it part of your active vocab). Mercurial means volatile, suddenly shifting from one emotion to the next. That works perfectly here. Answer (A) for the first blank.

For the first blank of the text completion, rambling does not work. It just shows that there is no particular direction to his emotions. The sentence, however, states that the mood of the concerti (and the composer) goes from passionate to calm, one moment to the next.

The second blank to text completion is perhaps more difficult, at least using my interpretation above. What exactly is Giacomo trying to do when he pens his works? He has these conflicts in him, so I’m thinking he could very well be trying to exorcise (get rid of) them. But can I use context to back that up? Well, there is nothing that suggests Giacomo is trying to get rid of these internal conflicts. Who knows, maybe that is what gives him the juice to compose. That is, these conflicts could be the lifeblood of his ability to compose.

That’s why I would really recommend returning to Text Completion guideline #3—Put in Your Own Word. Again, first put the sentence in your own words, then, if necessary, look for the clue. With this text completion, the composer’s inner states are like his outside states. They reflect one another. I’ve chosen reflect. I look down and there is mirror. The answer, (B).

If you are serious about taking the new GRE, and are worried that the text completions tend to be more holistic, tricky, or just downright devious than the current sentence completions, I would recommend buying the Revised GRE book and applying the guidelines above to the Text Completions in the book.

After all, the best way to improve is by applying what you’ve learned.