arpitjain wrote:
When the most recent earnings report was delivered at the meeting last week, employees hoped to find indications that their company, having been unprofitable the previous fiscal year, was in a state of (i)__________; however, they were disappointed by the (ii)_______ first quarter earnings.
Blank (i)
resurgence
decline
bankruptcy
Blank (ii)
tepid
emaciated
prodigious
Since the employees "hoped to find indications"
It is clear from the overall meaning of the sentence that the employees who were aware of the unprofitable previous fiscal year were hoping to find indications of better performance this year. Therefore,
resurgence, is the perfect choice. The other two words are (
decline and
bankruptcy) negative words and do not convey the intended meaning.
However, they were disappointed by the earnings, and that can be so, only if the earnings were not impressive - hence the answer to the second blank should be
tepid.
Prodigious earnings would not disappoint.
Emaciated seems too strong a word, and the word is usually used to refer to human beings who are just skins and bones due to starvation, whereas "tepid earnings" is a commonly used phrase. People do not use emaciated to describe earnings. This is a
Kaplan questions and is not really a good one. ETS would not create questions like this, where you have emaciated and tepid as answer choices.