GRE Text Completion Sample Questions

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1. Each one of us has suffered from bouts of depression and misery at some point in our lives. In these difficult times, one seeks the (1) ________ or guidance of a friend or companion for (2) ___________. Several people undergo consultation from psychiatrists in order to find their normal lives back. While the effectiveness of such (3) _____________ cannot be accurately gauged in all the cases, there certainly is a better and faster way of findingmotivation in the form of motivational posters.

Blank 1:

counseling, consultation, company

Blank 2:

guidance, support, motivation

Blank 3:

processes, support, endeavors

Correct Answer: company, motivation, processes

Explanation:

The given paragraph explains how we seek support from others in times of depression. The author says that in difficult times, we approach our friends or companions. Where we would approach a friend for his ‘guidance’, we would approach a companion for his ‘company’. This is clear from the first sentence itself. We seek company, guidance and consultation. Where friends come in handy for guidance, psychiatrists help with consultation and others give us company. Hence, the answer choice is clear. For the second blank, we need to concentrate on the last sentence. The author makes a comparison in the last sentence by saying that motivational posters are better and faster than all the aforementioned sources for ‘finding motivation’. Hence, we seek ‘motivation’ to come out of our state of depression through people around us. For the last blank, we need to select a word that suits all the scenarios; seeking the company or guidance of friends or companions and undergoing consultation from psychiatrists. The option ‘support’ is readily rejected. Out of the remaining two, it is more logical to choose ‘processes’. Approaching these options are ‘endeavors’ but to gauge the effectiveness we have to undergothe ‘processes’. The correct answer is thus ‘processes’.

2. Keep it short and simple. While writing your content, remember that just because you want to be (1) _________ you should not have long winded articles. Statistics show that between 400 and 600 words is the best length for most online articles. If you want to fill space in your site use other (2) __________ content. Not only will this make the whole thing nicer to see and read it will also (3) __________ the monotony of just plain text. Even if you do not have the expertise to create interactive content, just using bullet points and chartsin-between text will break it up into smaller more easily read pieces.

Blank 1:

elaborate, informative, appreciated

Blank 2:

interactive, informative, interesting

Blank 3:

relieve, break, remove

Correct Answer: informative, interactive, relieve

Explanation:

In the given paragraph the author is telling the reader to keep his articles short and simple for making them impressive for online use. For the first blank, we reject the option ‘appreciated’. There is no support that this word finds in the paragraph. The author gives a suggestion about how to write ‘elaborate’ articles in the fourth sentence. He says that if you have to be elaborate and fill space in your site there are other means of doing so. The correct answer option is ‘informative’. Just for the sake of being informative, you should not have long winded articles. For the second blank, the correct answer option is ‘interactive’. This is clear from the succeeding sentence in which the author gives suggestions about how interactive content can be created. For the last blank, we reject the option ‘remove’ because the other two options are more suitable. Out of the two suitable options, we select ‘relieve’ over ‘break’. To break the monotony would mean to discontinue the monotony of plain text whereas to relieve the monotony would mean to bring relief from the monotony. The option ‘relieve’ is more suitable because it does not give a sense of disconnection in the article; it is apositive word whereas ‘break’ is not.

GRE Text Completion Sample Questions

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