SECTION 1
1. By recognizing commonalities among all the major political parties and by promoting a collaborative decision making process, the prime minister has made good on his promise to cultivate a leadership style that emphasizes_____________。
A. growth
B. politics
C. ideology
D. cooperation
E. differentiation
2. The lizards snapped up insects that are so (i) __________that other potential predators avoid them,
Among the lizards’ prey were some beetles that they initially (ii) __________because the insects were spraying their hot, irritant defense chemical at the time, Yet even these produced no apparent ill effects, since the lizards, having eaten, proceeded on their way (iii) __________enough.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. rare D. sought G. erratically
B. nutritious E. rejected H. laboriously
C. noxious F. resembled I. nonchalantly
3. When the normally (i) __________film director was interviewed, it was only the topic of her next movle that (ii) __________her flow of words, Her (iii) __________on that subject suggested that it was an unwelcome one.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. assiduous D. diverted G. taciturnity
B. loquacious E. stanched H. alacrity
C. diffident F. accentuated I. rhasody
4. Bureaucrats tend to (i) __________. So it is surprising that the European Commission is proposing to hand back some of its antitrust powers to national governments. Such a willingness to (ii)
__________power is quite (iii) __________.Perhaps the commission, so often a byword for meddling, bungling, and even corruption, is starting to put its house in order following the forced resignation of the previous lot of commissioners last year.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. value complex procedures D. devolve G. troubling
B. guard their authority jealously E. misuse H. encouraging C. shirk many of their responsibilities F. appropriate I. predictable
5. It may be that a kind of pendulum is built into United States politics: if a particular interest group scores a major victory, its supporters (i) ______ and its adversaries (ii) ______ their efforts, so that the victory is soon (iii) ______.
Blank I Blank II Blank III
A. consider new possibilities D. abandon G. reversed
B. grow complacent E. redouble H augmented
C. become even more focused F. defend I. institutionalized
6. The historian’s narrative of the dynasty’s decline is (i) __, because though there is nothing (ii) __ the account, large parts of it rely on (iii) __.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. diffuse D. psychologically penetrating in H. plagiarism
B. reasonable E. inherently implausible about I. conjecture
C. questionable F. fully documented in J. pretense
7. In film studies – a visually oriented discipline that is __________backlit close-ups, eye line matches, and voyeuristic gazes-scholars have often been tone-deaf to the sounds of music.
A. fixated on
B. obsessed with
C. unconcerned with
D. amused by
E. bothered by
F. indifferent to
8. Consumers may think that genetic engineering of foods is something new, but humans have been modifying plants for ages; the__________is not that new genes are introduced but that genes can now be moved from one species to another.
A. novelty
B. quandary
C. advantage
D. innovation
E. discrepancy
F. predicament
9.Although the compound is abundant in the environment at large, its presence in the air is not
__________; only in the form of underwater sediment does it cause damage.
A. trivial
B. detectable
C. deleterious
D. substantive
E. detrimental
F. inconsequential
10. It is a testimony to Roth’s ______ that he could not quite bring himself to write a book as dull and flat as his original conception for his novel Everyman seemed to demand.
A. persistence
B. deterioration
C. talent
D. ambition
E. decline
F. genius
SECTION 2
1. While not ______ the arguments in favor of the proposal for new highway construction, the governor nevertheless decided to veto the proposal.
A. optimistic about
B. convinced by
C. happy with
D. sanguine about
E. unsympathetic to
2. The children’s ______ natures were in sharp contrast to the even-tempered dispositions of their parents.
A. mercurial
B. blithe
C. phlegmatic
D. apathetic
E. cunning
3. The first major exhibits of modern art left the public (i) ______, its (ii) _______ intensified by the responses of art critics, who stooped to vituperation to express their disgust with the new art.
Blank I Blank II
A. aghast D. shock
B. bemused E. apathy
C. unsurprised F. empathy
4. While many outside the company attributed the company’s success to its president’s (i) ______, insiders realized that this success owed more to the president’s inflexibility than to any (ii) ______ that the president might be supposed to have displayed.
Blank I Blank II
A. perseverance D. obduracy
B. popularity E. caprice
C. prescience F. foresight
5. With the rate of technological (i) ______ accelerating – many people now consider a personal computer (ii) ______ after three years --- the question of how to properly dispose of old equipment is no small matter.
Blank I Blank II
A. affordability D. outdated
B. complexity E. familiar
C. obsolescence F. inestimable
6. In the nineteenth century the (i) ______ advanced mechanical printing techniques made it possible for newspaper owners to print newspapers cheaply and in mass quantities, but unlike many other mechanized industries, where machines(ii) ______ workers, the new priting machines required trained compositors to run them, thereby (iii) ______ the demand for skilled printing labor.
Blank I Blank II Blank III
A. wide application of D. marginalized G. ignoring
B. extensive resistance to E. intrigued H anticipating
C. great expense of F. isolated I. increasing
7. If big sums are to be spent on cleaning up environmental disasters, it is better to spend them on unglamorous but ______ problems such as unsanitary water in Third World countries. A. futile
B. ephemeral
C. pressing
D. controversial
E. transitory
F. critical
8. The process of establishing a literary canon is seen by some as, in part, an attempt by certain scholars to make their own labors central and to relegate the work of others to ______ status. A. orthodox
B. marginal
C. mainstream
D. definitive
E. conditional
F. peripheral
9. Deacon attempts what seems impossible; a book rich in scientific insights, in a demanding discipline, that nevertheless is accessible to __________.
A skeptics
B experts
C nonspecialists
D zealots
E authorities F laypersons
10. Despite relying on the well--to-do for commissions the portrait painter was no________; he depicted the character of those he painted as he perceived it.
A hypocrite
B egotist
C sycophant
D adulator
E braggart
F coward
