SAT sentence completion practice test 01

1. Today Wegener's theory is ____ ; however, he died an outsider treated with ____ by the scientific establishment.

A. unsupported - approval
B. dismissed - contempt
C. accepted - approbation
D. unchallenged - disdain
E. unrivalled - reverence

2. The revolution in art has not lost its steam; it ____ on as fiercely as ever.

A. trudges
B. meanders
C. edges
D. ambles
E. rages

3. Each occupation has its own ____ ; bankers, lawyers and computer professionals, for example, all use among themselves language which outsiders have difficulty following.

A. merits
B. disadvantages
C. rewards
D. jargon
E. problems

4. ____ by nature, Jones spoke very little even to his own family members.

A. garrulous
B. equivocal
C. taciturn
D. arrogant
E. gregarious

5. Biological clocks are of such ____ adaptive value to living organisms, that we would expect most organisms to ____ them.

A. clear - avoid
B. meager - evolve
C. significant - eschew
D. obvious - possess
E. ambivalent - develop

6. The peasants were the least ____ of all people, bound by tradition and ____ by superstitions.

A. free - fettered
B. enfranchised - rejected
C. enthralled - tied
D. pinioned - limited
E. conventional - encumbered

7. Many people at that time believed that spices help preserve food; however, Hall found that many marketed spices were ____ bacteria, moulds and yeasts.

A. devoid of
B. teeming with
C. improved by
D. destroyed by
E. active against

8. If there is nothing to absorb the energy of sound waves, they travel on ____ , but their intensity ____ as they travel further from their source.

A. erratically - mitigates
B. eternally - alleviates
C. forever - increases
D. steadily - stabilizes
E. indefinitely - diminishes

9. The two artists differed markedly in their temperaments; Palmer was reserved and courteous, Frazer ____ and boastful.

A. phlegmatic
B. choleric
C. constrained
D. tractable
E. stoic

10. The intellectual flexibility inherent in a multicultural nation has been ____ in classrooms where emphasis on British-American literature has not reflected the cultural ____ of our country.

A. eradicated - unanimity
B. encouraged - aspirations
C. stifled - diversity
D. thwarted - uniformity
E. inculcated - divide

11. The conclusion of his argument, while ____ , is far from ____ .

A. stimulating - interesting
B. worthwhile - valueless
C. esoteric - obscure
D. germane - relevant
E. abstruse - incomprehensible

12. In the Middle Ages, the ____ of the great cathedrals did not enter into the architects' plans; almost invariably a cathedral was positioned haphazardly in ____ surroundings.

A. situation - incongruous
B. location - apt
C. ambience - salubrious
D. durability - convenient
E. majesty - grandiose