{"id":5099,"date":"2013-03-08T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/?p=5099"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:45:55","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:45:55","slug":"the-5-lb-book-how-to-study-sentence-equivalence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/the-5-lb-book-how-to-study-sentence-equivalence\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 lb. Book: How to Study Sentence Equivalence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re using the launch of our latest book, the <a href=\"\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/storeitemshow.cfm?ItemID=234\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">5 lb<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px\" src=\"\/\/manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2000\/iStock_000021857935XSmall.jpg\" alt=\"GRE Sentence Equivalence\" width=\"383\" height=\"254\" align=\"right\" \/> Book of GRE<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u00a0Practice Problems<\/span><\/a>, as motivation to take a look at each of the major question types. The book contains more than 1,100 pages of practice problems \u201c crazy! \u201c so you can spend all of your spare time doing nothing but studying. (Kidding. : ) )<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s try out one of the problems! Give yourself approximately 1 minute to get to your answer. Afterwards, we&#8217;ll solve the problem and also discuss how to approach SE questions in general.<\/p>\n<p>Note: If you haven&#8217;t done SE before, you need to pick <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">two<\/span> answers, either of which could fill in the blank!<\/p>\n<p>A field trip was arranged so that this troupe of ___________ dancers could observe the real masters of their art.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0seasoned<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0fledgling<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0expert<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0torpid<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0novice<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0lithe\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"right\">\u00a9\u00a0ManhattanPrep, 2013<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Do you have your two answers? Let&#8217;s go! There are several important steps that help us to answer SE questions both effectively and efficiently. (Note: if you&#8217;ve already read <a href=\"\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/01\/31\/the-5-lb-book-how-to-study-text-completions\/#.UTaENHzrlL8\">the TC article<\/a>, the steps are the same!)<\/p>\n<h3>(1) Read <em>only<\/em> the sentence<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>Read all the way to the period, but do NOT then jump to the answer choices. Instead<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><!--more--><\/h3>\n<h3>(2) While reading, look for the Target, Clues, and any Pivots<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p><em>The Target<\/em>: The blank is talking about <em>some<\/em>thing; what is that thing? Is it a particular person or other noun in the sentence? Is it an action?<\/p>\n<p><em>Clues<\/em>: At least one clue will be present to tell us what kind of meaning the answer choices must have<\/p>\n<p><em>Pivots<\/em>: Does the sentence change direction\u009d at any point? Do the clues point in the same direction as the blank, or should the blank go in the opposite direction?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In our sample question, the blank is placed in an interesting way: a troupe of _________ dancers\u009d The structure indicates that we&#8217;ll need something that&#8217;s going to describe a characteristic of the noun dancers\u009d \u201c in other words, we need an adjective.<\/p>\n<p>Are there any clues that&#8217;ll help us figure out what the adjective should mean? Let&#8217;s see the dancers are going on a field trip \u201c oh, and the purpose of the trip is to observe the real masters.\u009d These dancers, then, must not be masters \u201c they&#8217;re less experienced, or they&#8217;re amateurs, or something like that.<\/p>\n<p>Are there any pivots? There are no contrast words that might indicate a change of direction. In other words, the meaning in the blank agrees with the clue.<\/p>\n<h3>(3) Write your own Fill-In, then find a match in the answers<\/h3>\n<p>This is a <em>crucial<\/em> step; do not skip it. Figure out what kind of meaning you think the blank should reflect <em>before you look at the answer choices<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Then, when you look at the answer choices, ask yourself does this word match the meaning of what I decided should go in the blank?\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Why is that so important? Let&#8217;s say that I tell you I want the two answers that mean really sad.\u009d Then I show you a list of 6 words (SE&#8217;s always have 6 options). Here they are:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0sullen<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0apoplectic<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ecstatic<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0garrulous<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0morose<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0zealous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Which of these questions is easier to answer:<\/p>\n<p>(1) What does each word mean?<\/p>\n<p>(2) Which two words mean really sad?<\/p>\n<p><em>You do not care what each word means.<\/em> You only care about finding the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">two<\/span> that mean really sad.\u009d You can look at a word and think this doesn&#8217;t mean sad\u009d much more quickly than you can articulate the actual definition of that word.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t make your life harder: figure out what you think the blank means before you look at the answers. In our original problem at top, we came up with words like amateur\u009d and less experienced\u009d \u201c either would be a good fill-in.<\/p>\n<p>Write your fill-in down. Okay, now we can look at those answers!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0seasoned<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0fledgling<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0expert<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0torpid<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0novice<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0lithe\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Which of these answers means amateur\u009d or less experienced?\u009d<\/p>\n<p><em>Seasoned<\/em> means experienced, as does the word <em>expert<\/em>. These are the opposite of what we want. (Note: the answer choices will often include a wrong pair\u009d like this one \u201c the two words do have similar definitions, but they&#8217;re not the pair that we want.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Fledgling<\/em> does mean inexperienced or less experienced; this is one of the correct answers. This word is sort of poetic: a fledgling is also a baby bird just learning to fly. <em>Novice<\/em> is a synonym of fledgling; these two are the correct answers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Torpid<\/em> is a very hard word; do you know what it means? During the test itself, it&#8217;s enough to tell yourself that you&#8217;ve already found two other words that do mean less experienced.\u009d Alternatively, if you have a vague idea of <em>torpid<\/em>&#8216;s meaning, then you might know it does <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">not<\/span> mean less experienced, which is also enough to eliminate the answer. (Torpid means sluggish, sleepy, or apathetic.)<\/p>\n<p>What about <em>lithe<\/em>? This one means supple or flexible \u201c not the meaning we said we wanted.<\/p>\n<p>The correct words are fledgling\u009d and novice.\u009d (Note: you do have to select both answers correctly in order to get any credit on SE questions.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways for Sentence Equivalence Problems:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(1) Know your three steps: (1) read the full sentence; (2) find the target, clue, and pivot; (3) write your own fill-in, then match to the answers.<\/p>\n<p>(2) While the clock is ticking, do NOT try to fully define each answer; rather, try to find the one answer that matches what you think should go into the blank. Afterwards, of course, study any words you don&#8217;t know well enough.<\/p>\n<p>(3) Aim to average about 1 minute per question on sentence equivalence.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9\u00a0ManhattanPrep, 2013<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re using the launch of our latest book, the 5 lb. Book of GRE\u00a0Practice Problems, as motivation to take a look at each of the major question types. The book contains more than 1,100 pages of practice problems \u201c crazy! \u201c so you can spend all of your spare time doing nothing but studying. (Kidding. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,12],"tags":[34,289],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sentence-equivalence","category-verbal","tag-5lb-book","tag-sentence-equivalence-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6963,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions\/6963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5099"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}