Generic/specific sentence completions require two answer choices that have a general-to-specific relationship: one word is often an example or subset of the general word that encompasses it. You can think of this relationship as “category and example,” “type and subtype,” etc.

Let’s look at an example in order to formulate the right strategies:

1.       As we examine the history of literature, it is obvious that certain literary _____ , the novel at one time and the _____ at another, have achieved a sweeping popularity, seemingly out of proportion to their actual merit.

A. profiles…poetry

B. categories…songs

C. forms…drama

D. accolades…awards

E. structure…playwriting

Let’s examine the shape of the sentence and try to identify the relationship between the first and second blanks. If we read carefully, we’ll notice that the bulk of the clues are really in the first half of the sentence. Are we really need to know is that we are talking about the history of literature, and that the second blank is an example of a certain literary *blank*. A further clue in the sentence is that the “novel” is also an example of this certain literary *blank*. What, then, can we say about generics and specifics?

Generic:It seems the first blank is a general category relating to literature (also note that the word will naturally follow the adjective ‘literary’).

Specific: Our second blank is a specific example of this literary category; the “novel” is an example of a specific example in the same category.

Based on this relationship, we could safely use the phrase “Blank2 is a literary Blank1.”

To answer this question, we have to look at both answer choices simultaneously; because the words are dependent on each other, it’s best to approach this one blank at a time. Let’s ask the same questions of each word pair:

A.    Is poetry an example of a literary profile? Is the novel also an example of a literary profile?

B.    Are songs an example of a literary category? Is the novel also an example of a literary category?

C.   Is drama an example of a literary form? Is the novel also an example of a literary form?

D.   Are awards an example of a literary accolade? Is the novel also an example of a literary accolade?

E.    Is playwriting an example of literary structure? Is the novel also an example of literary structure?

Notice that, of the four incorrect answer choices, each is incorrect in its own way. In A, we can safely say that “literary profile” does not make sense as a category; a literary profile might be an analysis or description, not a broad category. In B, a ‘song’ is not quite a literary category, since it’s essentially musical; even if one might argue that a ‘song’ is a certain type of poem, we can say a ‘song’ is much too small a literary category to stand beside ‘the novel.’ In D, awards and accolade are essentially synonyms; if anything, it would make more sense to say that a literary accolade is a type of award, not vice versa. In E, playwriting could stand beside ‘the novel,’ but ‘literary structure’ would not make sense as a category with ‘playwriting’ and ‘the novel’ as examples.

In the end, C is by far our best answer. Both ‘drama’ and ‘the novel’ suffice as examples of ‘literary forms.’

Just as analogies have a limited number of relationships between words, sentence completions have a limited number of sentence types. All sentence completion questions follow certain patterns that, when recognized, can help you arrive at the correct answer. One of the simplest types of sentence completions is the “definition” question. As its name implies, the “definition” question simply defines the blank in the sentence.

Because definition questions are not very logically challenging (you don’t have to keep track of trigger words or changes in logical direction), you can expect the answer choices to include challenging vocabulary. For this reason, definition questions can be answered quickly, whether you know the answer or not. Let’s check out a few examples of the kinds of definition questions you might find on GRE Verbal.

Example 1. As the employee’s motives were found to be ——–, no disciplinary

action will be taken against him for the mistake.

(A) absurd

(B) gratuitous

(C) improvised

(D) benign

(E) intentional

Many definition questions will follow this format. The sentence begins with a statement that, when read alone, offers us no insights into the blank’s definition. A second explanatory clause, though, is appended to ‘define’ that blank. While this question does not strictly ‘define’ our word, it provides an isolated explanation that suffices as the word’s definition. In the first clause, we know we are looking for an adjective to describe the employee’s motives. The second clause explains that ‘no disciplinary action will be taken on him;’ thus, we can predict that the employee’s motives were ‘harmless” or “innocent.” The only word that closely matches our prediction is D, benign.

If you did not know the definition of ‘benign,’ you could simply eliminate the words that do not denote a sense of harmlessness, mildness, or innocence. “Absurd,” “intentional,” and “improvised” might be the first to go. Choosing between the more difficult words “gratuitous” and “benign” would give a 50/50 chance. The next step would be to think of the contexts in which you have heard each word (the most obvious example of ‘benign’ is that of a ‘benign tumor’ as opposed to a ‘malignant tumor’).

Example 2. Some Central Intelligence Agency officers have ———– their previous statements; they deny any involvement on their part with the Contra aid network and are now revising their earlier testimony.

a.       Justified

b.      Recanted

c.       Repeated

d.      Protracted

e.       Heeded

This example takes the same form. We have an independent clause at the beginning that offers us no insights into the blank’s definition. The second clause provides all the clues we need. In this case, though, the explanation replicates the action of the verb in question; in other words, the sentence offers us a prediction that we must identify. If the CIA officers ‘deny’ involvement and now ‘revise’ their testimony, what kind of verb might account for ‘denying and revising’ previous statements? B, recanted, which means to formally reject a former statement or belief, is by far the best answer.

Example 3: Mr. Brown’s management style was regarded as both ——— and ———–: he had a stern, serious demeanor but at the same time was attentive to the needs and feelings of his employees.

a.       Argumentative…hyperbolic

b.      Gentle…malignant

c.       Disciplinary…harsh

d.      Meek…caring

e.       Strict…compassionate

Here we have a much rarer form of the definition question: the two-blank definition. Most two-blank questions use trigger words to suggest either contrast or continuation between the words. Here, the explanatory clause actually defines the respective definitions of each blank.  When you see an explanatory clause offer two explanations, always associate the first explanation with the first blank and the second explanation with the second blank.

Like the previous example, the second clause offers us prediction words: the first blank should mean “stern and serious” while the second blank can be defined as being attentive to needs and feelings, so “caring” or “compassionate.”

Let’s look at the second blanks first. Suppose we don’t know the difficult words hyperbolic and malignant, but we know harsh, caring, and compassionate. It’s safe to eliminate C, harsh. Having only eliminated one answer choice, let’s look at the first blank. I know that “gentle” and “meek” contradict the first blank’s definition. Now I’m down to A and E. I know both words in E, and each fits my definition nicely. For A, though, I feel that ‘argumentative’ loosely fits the tone of my definition, but not quite the definition itself. In this case, it’s safe to choose E, the correct answer.

As you may have figured out, sentence completions do not only test you on vocabulary. While knowledge of vocabulary is necessary for these questions, logical reasoning is just as important. You must be able to recognize the logical direction of a sentence. In the end, then, words like “despite,” “because,” and “surprisingly” become as important as words like “despotic,” “benumbed,” and “surreptitiously.”

Trigger words, as you know, are those words that tell us what logical direction a sentence is going. Will one clause support another? Will it contrast another? Will it provide the effect of a cause? Contrast, continuation, and cause and effect are three common types of logic that sentence completions can exhibit. Here, we’re going to examine how words trigger the continuation of an idea.

Continuation / Support: Certain trigger words or phrases indicate that a blank supports or continues an idea in the sentence.

Here are some words that will often signal continuation or support: additionally, also, and, as well, furthermore, indeed, likewise, moreover, too. Also, the semicolon and the colon can function in the same way.

Example 1:

Some people believe that there is no such thing as true ——-: every action, they say, is motivated by some degree of self-interest.

A.    Greed

B.     Benevolence

C.     Perspicacity

D.    Avidity

E.     Sentience

In this example, the colon functions as a trigger word signaling continuation or support. Essentially, the clause following the colon defines the blank. In this example, the clause following the colon defines the blank negatively. If there is “no such thing” as ______, and, as a result, every action is “motivated by a degree of self-interest,” then our prediction must be the opposite of self-interest. Indeed, the answer is “benevolence.”

Example 2:

No other artist rewards the viewer with more sheer pleasure than Van Gogh; he is one of those blessed artists who combine profundity and _________.

A.    Education

B.     Wisdom

C.     Faith

D.    Fun

E.     Depth

Here, we have a more straightforward example of how punctuation can trigger the continuation of an idea. We have two independent clauses separated by a semicolon. Remember that a semicolon often triggers a continuation. The first clause, put simply, says that Van Gogh produces pleasures for the viewer. Thus, he must be ‘one of those blessed artists who combine profundity with pleasure.” It would be a safe bet to make ‘pleasure’ your prediction word. Look for the word that is closest to ‘pleasure” in meaning. ‘Fun’ happens to be our best choice even if you think the word’s simplicity is incongruous with the academic content of the sentence.

Check out Grockit for GRE verbal practice!

All good writers use transitions to link their ideas in a sentence, from sentence to sentence, or from paragraph to paragraph. The GRE wants you to know how to both use transitions effectively and spot them in writing. Certain sentence completions use transitions as trigger words, that is, those words that tell us what logical direction a sentence is going. Will one clause support another? Will it contrast another? Will it provide the effect of a cause? Here, we’ll look at certain words that trigger contrast in a sentence.

Contrast:. Trigger words signaling contrast can be explicit or implicit. Some explicit examples include although, but, despite, even though, in contrast, nevertheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the other hand, rather than, still, while, yet. Some implicit examples, which are often harder to detect, include “ironically, paradoxically, surprisingly, illogically, unexpectedly.

First, let’s look at an example without the answer choices just so you can get a sense of how the triggers are used.

Example 1:

Even though the teacher continued to ——– her underachieving student, her initial anger had been —— by his sincere promise to apply himself in the future.

In this example, we have an explicit contrast phrase, “even though.” Consequently, we know that the teacher’s initial anger that characterizes the first blank must be diminished by his sincere promise to apply himself. We have two contrasting ideas: harsh, angry criticism and then a mollified attitude.  Thus, we might look for a harsh verb–one that means criticize or reprimand–for the first blank and a verb like ‘eased’ or ‘lessened’ for the second blank. The answer to this sentence is “berate…abated,” which satisfies our contrast.

Example 2:

Paradoxically, the more ________ the details this artist chooses, the better able she is to depict her fantastic, other-worldly landscapes.

1. Ethereal
2. Realistic
3. Fanciful
4. Extravagant
5. Sublime

Here, you should recognize the word ‘paradoxically’ as an implicit contrast trigger word. The word suggests that the situation being described has an unexpected outcome, one that contrary to our logical expectations. In the sentence, we might expect the artist to better depict her fantastic, other-world landscapes by using equally fantastic details. Without our contrast trigger word, we might choose ‘fanciful’ or perhaps ‘ethereal’ as a logical answer. The word ‘paradoxically,’ however, means that we should choose a word that contrasts our expectations; thus, the best choice should be ‘realistic,’ the best antonym of ‘fanciful.’

Please visit the Grockit forum or leave a comment here to discuss further.

As you may have figured out, sentence completions do not only test you on vocabulary. While knowledge of vocabulary is necessary for these questions, logical reasoning is just as important. You must be able to recognize the logical direction of a sentence. In the end, then, words like “despite,” “because,” and “surprisingly” become as important as words like “despotic,” “benumbed,” and “surreptitiously.”

Trigger words, as you know, are those words that tell us what logical direction a sentence is going. Will one clause support another? Will it contrast another? Will it provide the effect of a cause? Contrast, continuation, and cause and effect are three common types of logic that sentence completions can exhibit.

1. Continuation / Support: Certain trigger words or phrases indicate that a blank supports or continues an idea in the sentence.

Here are some words that will often signal continuation or support: additionally, also, and, furthermore, indeed, likewise, too. Also, the semicolon and the colon can function in the same way.

Here’s an example:

Some people believe that there is no such thing as true ——-: every action, they say, is motivated by some degree of self-interest.

In this example, the colon functions as a trigger word signaling continuation or support. Essentially, the clause following the colon defines the blank. In this example, the clause following the colon defines the blank negatively. If there is “no such thing” as ______, and, as a result, every action is “motivated by a degree of self-interest,” then our prediction must be the opposite of self-interest. Indeed, the answer is “benevolence.”

2. Contrast: Certain trigger words also can indicate a contrast with an idea in the sentence. Trigger words signaling contrast can be explicit or implicit. Some explicit examples include although, but, despite, even though, in contrast, nevertheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the other hand, rather than, still, while, yet. Some implicit examples, which are often harder to detect, include “ironically, paradoxically, surprisingly, illogically, unexpectedly. Note

Here’s an example:

Even though the teacher continued to ——– her underachieving student, her initial anger had been —— by his sincere promise to apply himself in the future.

In this example, we have an explicit contrast phrase, “even though.” Consequently, we know that the teacher’s initial anger that characterizes the first blank must be diminished by his sincere promise to apply himself. We have two contrasting ideas: harsh, angry criticism and then a mollified attitude. The answer to this sentence is “berate…abated,” which satisfies our contrast.

3. Cause and Effect: Cause and effect signal words are a bit like continuation/support words, but there is an important distinction. A cause and its effect are rarely synonymous in meaning, nor are they directly opposite in meaning. Make sure you keep this in mind when you encounter these cause and effect trigger words:  because, consequently, given, hence, if…then, in order to, therefore, thus.

Here’s a simple example.

Because John failed the test that he had been rigorously studying for, he felt ______.

Even with this oversimplified example, we can distinguish a cause and effect question from a contrast or continuation question. We cannot readily identify a word in the sentence that is either synonymous or antonymous with our blank. We have to use cause and effect reasoning to figure out a prediction. If John failed a test he had been studying for, he would probably feel very disappointed.

For practice, why don’t we change “because” to a contrast word, and see how that might change our prediction.

Although John failed the test that he had been rigorously studying for, he felt ______.

With just a change from ‘because’ to ‘although,’ we must radically change our approach to the problem. Now, an appropriate prediction might be “fine,” “happy,” “undeterred,” “undiscouraged.”

Remember, we cannot simply gloss over the trigger words in sentence completions. Whenever you practice on Grockit, mentally take note of the trigger words in a sentence. It will help you avoid simple mistakes that may cost you big points on the exam.

A common mistake that students make when doing sentence completions is forgetting to check if the sentence makes logical sense even though the word seems to fit the blank. This is particularly important in two-blank sentence completions. If you see certain words such as “because”, “therefore”, “in addition” etc, you know that the two blanks should correspond. If one blank should be a positive word, the other blank should also be a positive word and vice versa. This is known as Structural Agreement. (A second post on Structural Contrast will follow soon).

Here are two situations which indicate that the sentence contains a structural agreement
Case 1: Cause and Effect
A cause and effect sentence usually runs like this: “Because…., then…”. Words such as because, therefore, hence, consequently, then and as a result should give you a clue that the blank agrees with the rest of the sentence.

Let’s try a one blank sentence first. As always, scan it quickly to see if it has any structural key words.

Because of the ——– weather, the children spent the day playing in the yard.
A. balmy
B. torrid
C. symbiotic
D. attenuating
E. mellifluous

The “because” should tell you that the weather was good. Because the weather was good, the children could play in the yard outdoors, rather than stay indoors. This means that you are looking for a positive word to fill in the blank and can get rid of torrid and attenuating. From there, apply what other vocabulary guessing skills such as using roots if you don’t know what the words mean.

Here’s another example.
E.E. Cummings has been labeled an ——– because he rejected traditional poetic forms for his unique experimental ones.
A. industrial
B. aberration
C. iconoclast
D. aboriginal
E. entrepreneur

Because tells you that its an agreement and further, it defines the blank for you. E.E. Cummings is someone who rejects tradition for experimental forms. Is “aberration” the definition of such a person? Is “aboriginal”? You can eliminate choices when you realize that the blank is defined by certain phrases in the sentence.

Case 2: Strengthening words
A little different from cause and effect are strengthening or amplifying sentence. This is where part of the sentence elaborates and sometimes strengths what’s said in the other half. Strengthening words are also, for example, in other words, such as, in addition.

In the following sentence, such as is used to indicate that the sentence contains a structural agreement. What follows such as defines or is an example of the first half of the sentence. “Placing a plasma-screen television in an early twentieth-century living room” suggests that the TV is out of place, so I would pick choice C. “Anachronism” means out of its proper time period and I can guess what this word means from the roots “ana” and “chrono”.

The film was harshly criticized for its ——–, such as placing a plasma-screen television in an early twentieth-century living room.
A. Imperfections
B. injustices
C. anachronisms
D. exigencies
E. tempos

Sometimes, the agreement might not be indicated so obviously as shown by the next two examples. The word accompanying in the following examples suggests that the blank echoes or strengthens “unemployment”. This eliminates “affluence”, “infirmity” and “benevolence”.
That family’s many financial woes include unemployment and the accompanying ——–, which they are struggling to overcome.
A. affliction
B. affluence
C. penury
D. infirmity
E. benevolence

Other times, the agreement might be shown by the semicolon. A semicolon is usually to join to clauses that can otherwise stand on its own. More often than not, the clauses agree with one another, or one explains the other.

Try this example:
Critics of the self-help book deem it ——– folly; they claim that it advocates ——– that set back women’s social issues by decades.
A. a misogynist… behaviors
B. a sexist… pestilences
C. an excellent… protocols
D. a disturbing… intuitions
E. a laudable… comportments

The word “folly” suggests that the critics do not like the book. Specifically, the second clause tells you that they do not like it because it “sets back women’s social issues by decades”. You can thus eliminate choice C and E because “excellent” and “laudable” do not indicate the critics’ dislike.

Always remember to check if the sentence contains a structural agreement or contrast. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to pick the immediate answer that fits without checking that it makes sense in context.