![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/06\/gre-sentence-equivalence-questions-pair-cat-powell.png\")
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There are two types of fill-in-the-blank vocabulary questions on the GRE: Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence. Text Completion questions ask you to fill in one, two, or three blanks with a single word; Sentence Equivalence questions ask you to fill in one blank with two words. Often, students think of these as the \u201csynonym\u201d questions, but that\u2019s not entirely accurate; being too focused on looking for exact synonyms trips up some test takers. Others aren\u2019t rigorous enough when looking for a pair. In this article, I\u2019m going to discuss exactly what we\u2019re looking for when we \u201cpair\u201d answers for Sentence Equivalence and what common traps we should avoid.<\/span><\/p>\n The official instructions for Sentence Equivalence questions are:<\/span><\/p>\n Select the <\/span><\/i>two<\/i><\/b> answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole <\/span><\/i>and<\/i><\/b> produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n We\u2019re looking for two words that, when we plug them into the sentence, give us the same general idea of what that sentence is saying. This means that our correct answers don\u2019t have to be exact synonyms, but they do need to be close enough that they don\u2019t alter the core meaning of the sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n I sometimes use this test: if I were told that someone or something were <\/span>X<\/b>, could I reasonably assume it was also <\/span>Y<\/b>? Let\u2019s try out this test with a potential pair of words that came up in a class I taught recently: <\/span>demanding<\/b> and <\/span>critical<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say, for example, that I was told someone is <\/span>demanding<\/b>, meaning that they expect a lot or have high standards. Could I reasonably assume that this person is also <\/span>critical<\/b>, meaning that they are discerning or tend to pass judgments (which are often, but not always, negative)? In everyday life, maybe. People who are demanding seem like they\u2019d be inclined to be critical. But for GRE purposes, no. Critical adds layers of meaning that demanding lacks. Consider each of these in a sentence:<\/span><\/p>\n (A) She was a very demanding teacher. These are clearly different teachers. The teacher in sentence A sounds like a teacher you might like to have; she\u2019d push you, but in a way that felt fair. The teacher in sentence B? Well, she might offer more negative or more judgmental feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n Try out this idea with a set of actual answer choices. See what pairs you can spot here.<\/span><\/p>\n Here, I\u2019d pair \u201ccostly\u201d and \u201cexpensive.\u201d These are the only words that really match one another. Notice that \u201copulent\u201d\u2014rich, luxurious\u2014seems close in meaning (it has to do with money). It\u2019s like \u201ccritical\u201d when compared to \u201cdemanding,\u201d though; one adds layers of meaning that the other lacks. \u201cExciting\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d might be tempting, too, since dangerous things are often exciting\u2014but this is even more of a stretch than \u201ccritical\u201d and \u201cdemanding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s double-check our thinking on this by consulting the sentence these answers go with:<\/span><\/p>\n The frequent and wide-ranging travels of a photo-journalist are often _______,\u00a0<\/span>racking up huge bills for freelancers working without a guarantee of payment.<\/span><\/p>\n Nice! I have the clue \u201cracking up huge bills,\u201d which further confirms that \u201ccostly\u201d and \u201cexpensive\u201d are the right pair. Notice that \u201cexciting\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d are both, on their own, tempting choices; they seem like good words to describe \u201cfrequent and wide-ranging travels.\u201d However, by being rigorous about how I pair my answers, I can avoid this trap.<\/span><\/p>\n Pairing answers is a good step to add to your Sentence Equivalence process, if you don\u2019t do this already. When the sentence is confusing, looking for pairs in the answer choices can help focus your reading. In this case, you might skip ahead to the answer choices and then return to the sentence to look for clues. Even when you do have a good understanding of the sentence, pairing answer choices can still help you to avoid falling into GRE traps. ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n There are two types of fill-in-the-blank vocabulary questions on the GRE: Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence. Text Completion questions ask you to fill in one, two, or three blanks with a single word; Sentence Equivalence questions ask you to fill in one blank with two words. Often, students think of these as the \u201csynonym\u201d questions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474284,921840,6,733445,22,12],"tags":[1362574],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-study-tips-2","category-sentence-equivalence","category-verbal","tag-pairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11619","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\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11619"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11783,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11619\/revisions\/11783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11619"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/i><\/i>(B) She was a very critical teacher.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n
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\n![\"cat-powell-1\"](\"https:\/\/d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/08\/cat-powell-1-150x150.png\")
Cat Powell<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY.\u00a0<\/strong>She spent her undergraduate years at Harvard studying music and English and is now pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at Columbia University. Her affinity for standardized tests led her to a 169Q\/170V score on the GRE.\u00a0Check out Cat\u2019s upcoming GRE courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"