Text Completion Practice Questions

It is refreshing to read a book about our planet by an author who does not allow facts to be (i)__________ by politics: well aware of the political disputes about the effects of human activities on climate and biodiversity, this author does not permit them to (ii)__________ his comprehensive description of what we know about our biosphere. He emphasizes the enormous gaps in our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations, and the (iii)__________, calling attention to the many aspects of planetary evolution that must be better understood before we can accurately diagnose the condition of our planet.

• overshadowed

• obscure

• superficiality of our theories

Vain and prone to violence, Caravaggio could not handle success: the more his (i)__________ as an artist increased, the more (ii)__________ his life became.

• eminence

• tumultuous

• notoriety

• temperance

• providential

In parts of the Arctic, the land grades into the landfast ice so _______ that you can walk off the coast and not know you are over the hidden sea.

• permanently

• imperceptibly

• irregularly

• precariously

• relentlessly

This composer has never courted popularity: her rugged modernism seems to defy rather than to _______ the audience.

• ignore

• discount

• woo

• teach

• cow

The sight of a single actor portraying several characters in the same scene is no longer a shock to the average moviegoer, such special-effects trickery having become so _______.

• expensive

• specialized

• sinister

• commonplace

• unreliable

Early studies often concluded that the public was _______ the propagandistic influence of mass communications, but one recent study indicates that, on the contrary, mass communications seldom produce marked changes in social attitudes or actions.

• unaware of

• scornful of

• susceptible to

• unimpressed by

• coping with

The figure-skating pair's convincing victory last week was particularly (i)_______ to their rivals, who were in peak form and complained privately about the judging. That the pair won when their rivals were (ii)_______ too is also impressive.

• nervous

• unsurprising

• terrific

• irksome

• gratifying

In his initial works, the playwright made physical disease (i)_______ factor in the action; from this, his early critics inferred that he had a predilection for focusing on (ii)_______ subject matter.

• an obscure

• a nonexistent

• morbid

• a pivotal

• recondite

We have yet to (i)_______ the assessment of Canada's biodiversity. Most of the vertebrates have been assessed, but our challenge will be the assessment of invertebrates and plants. This task is (ii)_______ not only because of the high number of species, but also because of the diversity, each species requiring a different approach.

• complete

• initiate

• daunting

• limit

• repetitious

The company's efforts to improve safety were apparently (i) incidents with the potential to cause a serious accident declined significantly. Nevertheless, independent analysts argue that those statistics are (iii)_______. These analysts maintain that the company has consistently underestimated both the probability and the likely effects of accidents in the sensitive and poorly understood environment in which the company is operating.

• frustrated

• innovative

• deceptive

• frequency of

• successful