{"id":10588,"date":"2017-09-06T16:26:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=10588"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:38:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:38:35","slug":"gre-vocabulary-words-change-whole-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/gre-vocabulary-words-change-whole-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"GRE Vocabulary Words that Change the Whole Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/i><\/b>Let\u2019s take a look at some of the most useful GRE vocabulary words. These words don\u2019t look that important on their own, but they can reverse the meaning of an entire phrase or sentence! Get started by trying out this GRE Text Completion question: <\/span><\/p>\n

Incensed, and perhaps spooked, by the implications of the bureau\u2019s purportedly _______ inquisitions, the Hollywood film director shuttered his studios, suspended production of numerous projects, and decamped with his wife to Europe. <\/span><\/p>\n

(A) suspicious
\n<\/span>(B) benign
\n<\/span>(C) risqu\u00e9
\n<\/span>(D) vainglorious
\n<\/span>(E) orthodox<\/span><\/p>\n

The word that fits in the blank will describe the bureau\u2019s inquisitions. What else do we know about these inquisitions? They were so bad, they caused the director to flee the country\u2014so they must have been <\/span>dangerous<\/span><\/i>, or <\/span>intense<\/span><\/i>, or perhaps <\/span>revealing<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the right answer to the problem doesn\u2019t match up with any of these! The answer is actually <\/span>benign<\/b>, which means \u201charmless.\u201d That\u2019s pretty strange. After all, if the inquisitions caused the director to close his studios and run away, they couldn\u2019t have been harmless at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

The key to understanding this paradox is in another word in the sentence. It\u2019s a word that\u2019s easy to overlook when you first read it. (If you spotted it, give yourself a pat on the back\u2014but keep reading!) That word is <\/span>purportedly<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

This word, and others like it, are among the most important GRE vocabulary words. Technically, its meaning is similar to \u201cclaimed\u201d or \u201cstated.\u201d But, in a sentence, it actually reverses the meaning of whatever it\u2019s describing! An experienced employee is a good hiring decision, but a <\/span>purportedly<\/span><\/i> experienced employee is one who claimed to have experience, but actually didn\u2019t. A healthy meal is great, but a <\/span>purportedly<\/span><\/i> healthy meal is one that seemed healthy but really wasn\u2019t. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the problem we just solved, a <\/span>purportedly<\/span><\/i> benign investigation is an investigation that isn\u2019t harmless at all. The bureau might have <\/span>claimed<\/span><\/i> that the investigation was harmless\u2014but, in fact, the opposite was true. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try another, similar problem. This one is a Sentence Equivalence problem, so you\u2019ll need to choose two different words that could fill in the blank. <\/span><\/p>\n

The _______ adventurer James Branson spends the majority of his autobiography trying to make his life sound like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, but in the end, according to some reviewers, it all comes off rather forced and unconvincing. <\/span><\/p>\n

(A) hapless
\n<\/span>(B) bold
\n<\/span>(C) self-styled
\n<\/span>(D) unlucky
\n<\/span>(E) so-called
\n<\/span>(F) intrepid<\/span><\/p>\n

James Branson might <\/span>think<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>claim<\/span><\/i> that he\u2019s an adventurer. However, the sentence focuses on a contrast between what Branson writes in his biography and how the reviewers interpret it. He isn\u2019t <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> an adventurer, after all! That\u2019s what makes <\/span>self-styled<\/b> and <\/span>so-called<\/b> the right answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

So-called<\/span><\/i> is similar to <\/span>purportedly<\/span><\/i>: a <\/span>so-called intellectual<\/span><\/i>, for instance, isn\u2019t really much of an intellectual at all! <\/span>Self-styled<\/span><\/i> is also similar, but with an extra twist: a <\/span>self-styled intellectual<\/span><\/i> is someone who incorrectly describes <\/span>him or herself<\/span><\/i> as an intellectual, as opposed to someone who\u2019s called that by other people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few more words that behave the same way:<\/span><\/p>\n