![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/05\/gre-sentence-equivalence-charge-traps-chelsey-cooley.png\")
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In <\/span>this article<\/span><\/a>, GRE instructor Tom Anderson asks a smart question: is it better to <\/span>sort of <\/span><\/i>know a lot of GRE words, or to <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> know a few GRE words? It turns out that you\u2019re better off if you learn fewer words, but really learn them well. If you don\u2019t, here\u2019s one way the GRE could trick you.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of the toughest GRE words are adjectives: descriptions of people, situations, or things. Adjectives are a bit like cupcakes. A sweet cupcake is good, but a cupcake that\u2019s <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> sweet can make your teeth ache. They\u2019re both sweet, but one is tasty, and the other is, well, gross.<\/span><\/p>\n Likewise, lots of GRE adjectives have \u201cevil twins.\u201d One word is sweet, but the other is <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> sweet. Here are some examples.<\/span><\/p>\n thrifty \u2013 miserly<\/span><\/p>\n sentimental \u2013 mawkish<\/span><\/p>\n respectful \u2013 obsequious<\/span><\/p>\n devout \u2013 priggish<\/span><\/p>\n ornate \u2013 ostentatious<\/span><\/p>\n All of these pairs share the same relationship. Someone who\u2019s miserly is <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> thrifty. If a poem is mawkish, it\u2019s <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> sentimental. If an employee is obsequious, she\u2019s not just respectful, she\u2019s so respectful that it\u2019s kind of weird. And so on. The second word is a \u201ctoo sweet\u201d version of the first word.<\/span><\/p>\n If you only <\/span>sort of <\/span><\/i>know these words, you can see how you might assume they mean the same thing. After all, thrifty and miserly both mean \u201ccheap,\u201d and ornate and ostentatious both mean \u201cfancy.\u201d But do they mean the same thing on the GRE? Nope.<\/span><\/p>\n So, what if you see both of them in the answer choices? It depends.<\/span><\/p>\n Suppose you\u2019re doing a GRE Sentence Equivalence problem\u2014the type of problem where the two right answers will be synonyms. Here\u2019s one possible set of answer choices:<\/span><\/p>\n crafty<\/span><\/p>\n gawky<\/span><\/p>\n hardy<\/span><\/p>\n miserly<\/span><\/p>\n stingy<\/span><\/p>\n thrifty<\/span><\/p>\n The first three answer choices are right out, since none of them has a twin. That leaves us with <\/span>miserly<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>stingy<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>thrifty<\/span><\/i>. Let\u2019s call this \u2018situation number 1\u2019\u2014where you have three answer choices that sort of mean the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n This is what we call a <\/span>charge trap<\/span><\/i>. The three words have similar meanings, but one of them has a different \u201ccharge\u201d\u2014<\/span>thrifty<\/span><\/i> is a neutral word, while <\/span>miserly<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>stingy<\/span><\/i> are much more extreme, and therefore bad. Since only two of the words really match each other, you should choose <\/span>miserly<\/b> and <\/span>stingy<\/b>, regardless of what your fill-in was.<\/span><\/p>\n When you learn a new word, take note of whether it has a strong charge, either good or bad. This is especially true if it\u2019s a more extreme version of some other word you already know. If you\u2019re not sure what the charge of a word is, search for it online and check out how people are using it!<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, here\u2019s situation number 2, with a different set of answer choices:<\/span><\/p>\n elaborate<\/span><\/p>\n gaudy<\/span><\/p>\n ornate<\/span><\/p>\n ostentatious<\/span><\/p>\n pragmatic<\/span><\/p>\n rustic<\/span><\/p>\n Two answer choices\u2014<\/span>pragmatic <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>rustic<\/span><\/i>\u2014are definitely out, since they have no twins. That leaves four possibilities, of which you need to choose two. Take a moment and divide those four words into two pairs, based on their charge.<\/span><\/p>\n Ready? Here we go. <\/span>Elaborate <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>ornate<\/span><\/i> have the same (neutral) charge, while <\/span>gaudy<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>ostentatious<\/span><\/i> share a negative charge. Other than that, they basically mean the same thing: fancy.<\/span><\/p>\n To choose a pair, let\u2019s go back to the golden rule of GRE Verbal: <\/span>Find the Proof<\/b>. Every GRE Verbal problem has one and only one right answer, and you can always prove that the right answer is right.<\/span><\/p>\n If you can\u2019t prove that a strong word is right, you should choose a neutral one. However, if the sentence contains proof for the stronger word, the stronger word is the right answer. Here\u2019s a sentence that might go with those answer choices from above:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGilding the lily\u201d is a 19<\/span>th<\/span>-century expression that was first coined to describe the ________ d\u00e9cor adopted by those who were too eager to display their recently acquired wealth; some owners of Beaux Arts homes, for instance, would cover up the beautiful but subtle carvings of flowers around their entranceways with a layer of flashy gold gilt.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of proof here for <\/span>ostentatious<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>gaudy<\/span><\/i>. The homeowners were <\/span>too eager<\/span><\/i> to display their wealth; they covered up <\/span>beautiful but subtle <\/span><\/i>features of their homes in favor of something more <\/span>flashy<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n This next sentence <\/span>doesn\u2019t<\/span><\/i> have proof for a strong word, so you should pick the neutral pair:<\/span><\/p>\n In the late 19<\/span>th<\/span> century, architecture and decoration took a turn for the ________, with many owners of Beaux Arts homes embellishing their entryways with intricate carvings of flowers inscribed with gold gilt.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no proof here that the decoration was <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> ornate\u2014and if you can\u2019t prove the stronger answer, you can\u2019t pick it. If this is the sentence you\u2019re dealing with, choose <\/span>ornate<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>elaborate<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n In short, here\u2019s how to avoid charge traps:<\/span><\/p>\n If you follow those guidelines, you\u2019ll deepen your vocabulary knowledge and protect yourself against trap answers on GRE Sentence Equivalence! ?<\/span><\/p>\n See that \u201cSUBSCRIBE\u201d button in the top right corner? Click on it to receive all our GRE blog updates straight to your inbox!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> In this article, GRE instructor Tom Anderson asks a smart question: is it better to sort of know a lot of GRE words, or to really know a few GRE words? It turns out that you\u2019re better off if you learn fewer words, but really learn them well. If you don\u2019t, here\u2019s one way the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,474284,921840,7,733445,22,12],"tags":[1362565,1362566],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenge-problems","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-how-to-study","category-study-tips-2","category-sentence-equivalence","category-verbal","tag-charge-traps","tag-synonyms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11604,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11558\/revisions\/11604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11558"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/i><\/b>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170Q\/170V on the GRE.\u00a0<\/em><\/i>Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GRE prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"