Words in Context Lv Medium (Part1)

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most nearly mean?

The artisans of the Igun Eronmwon guild in Benin City, Nigeria, typically ______ the bronze- and brass-casting techniques that have been passed down through their families since the thirteenth century, but they don’t strictly observe every tradition; for example, guild members now use air-conditioning motors instead of handheld bellows to help heat their forges.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Diego Velázquez was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain during the seventeenth century, but his influence was hardly ______ Spain: realist and impressionist painters around the world employed his techniques and echoed elements of his style.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

For a 2020 exhibition, photographer and neurobiologist Okunola Jeyifous ______ a series of new images based on a series of alphabet posters from the 1970s known as the “Black ABCs,” which featured Black children from Chicago. Jeyifous photographed the now-adult models and layered the photos over magnified images of the models’ cells, resulting in what he called “micro and macro portraiture.”

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Rydra Wong, the protagonist of Samuel R. Delany’s 1966 novel Babel-17, is a poet, an occupation which, in Delany’s work, is not ______: nearly a dozen of the characters that populate his novels are poets or writers.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Interruptions in the supply chain for microchips used in personal electronics have challenged an economist’s assertion that retailers can expect robust growth in sales of those devices in the coming months. The delays are unlikely to ______ her projection entirely but will almost certainly extend its time frame.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mineralogical differences are detectable in samples collected from two locations on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, but such differences may not indicate substantial compositional variations in the asteroid. Cosmochemist Kazuhide Nagashima and colleagues note that at the small scale of the samples, the distribution of minerals is unlikely to be ______.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Set in a world where science fiction tropes exist as everyday realities, Charles Yu’s 2010 novel How to Live Safely in a

Science Fictional Universe traces a time traveler’s quest to find his father. Because the journey at the novel’s center is so ______, with the protagonist ricocheting chaotically across time, the reader often wonders whether the pair will ever be reunited.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Business researcher Melanie Brucks and colleagues found that remote video conference meetings may be less conducive to brainstorming than in-person meetings are. The researchers suspect that video meeting participants are focused on staring at the speaker on the screen and don’t allow their eyes or mind to wander as much, which may ultimately ______ creativity.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

The following text is adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), translated by Paul

Selver and Nigel Playfair in 1923. Fabry and Busman are telling Miss Glory why their company manufactures robots. FABRY: One Robot can replace two and a half workmen. The human machine, Miss Glory, was terribly imperfect. It had to be removed sooner or later. BUSMAN: It was too expensive.

FABRY: It was not effective. It no longer answers the requirements of modern engineering. Nature has no idea of keeping pace with modern labor.

As used in the text, what does the word “answers” most nearly mean?

Like the 1945 play it reimagines—Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba—Marcus Gardley’s 2014 play The House That Will Not Stand prominently features women. In both plays, the all-female cast ______ an array of female characters, including a strong mother and several daughters dealing with individual struggles.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John wants to travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, Matty.

[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion, but found it a difficult task. Matty always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son’s desires were incomprehensible to her, that was all.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “reconcile his mother to” most nearly mean?

Handedness, a preferential use of either the right or left hand, typically is easy to observe in humans. Because this trait is present but less ______ in many other animals, animal-behavior researchers often employ tasks specially designed to reveal individual animals’ preferences for a certain hand or paw.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?