Text Completion Practice for the GRE

Text Completion Questions

Text Completion questions on the GRE can be a little bit strange-looking, but the best way to tackle the weird formatting is to just dive right in headfirst and start practicing.

In this lesson, you’ll do exactly that with the Text Completion questions. These questions ask you to fill in one or more blanks in a short passage with vocab words. They’re tricky because they’re unpredictable - you can have anywhere between one and three blanks, with anywhere from one to five sentences in the passage. If you have just one blank in the passage, you’ll pick from five answer choices; for more than one, you’ll have three choices per blank.

It sounds confusing to remember all of that, but once you get the basic technique for answering them down, they’re not that bad. So gear up for some practice, because in this lesson you’ll walk through a pair of sample questions and then try some on your own in the quiz.

Question One

We’ll start off the first practice round with a three-blank question. Here it is:

‘Fueled by a(n) domestic fan base and increasing international ~, the Korean pop music scene has grown rapidly in the past decade. The music - high-energy pop accompanied by choreographed dance numbers - appeals even to fans who speak no Korean themselves. However, some popular groups release songs in Chinese, Japanese and English in addition to Korean versions, the better to their international fans.’

Blank 1

A. Idolized

B. Zealous

C. Pernicious

Blank 2

D. Acclaim

E. Incidence

F. Orthodoxy

Blank 3

G. Impugn

H. Woo

I. Abjure

We’re starting with a fast pitch here: three blanks is the most possible blanks you’ll ever find in a Text Completion question. To answer, don’t just start trying combinations of words. For one thing, it’s really hard to hold all three words in your head at once. For another, it’s not very time-efficient.

Instead, try using context clues to determine each blank separately and cross off incorrect answers as you eliminate them. Use that to whittle the answer list down to a manageable size and then start plugging things in.

Ready? Give it a shot - pause the video right now if you need some time to work on it. Okay, answer’s coming up. Are you ready? The correct answers for the blanks, in order, are B, D, and H.

For blank one, ‘grown rapidly’ clues you in that this will be something positive about the fan base. ‘Pernicious’ is negative, so get rid of that. ‘Idolized’ also doesn’t work, because the fans might idolize the performers; the fans themselves aren’t idolized. So, you’re left with only B for blank one.

For blank two, again, ‘grown rapidly’ tells you that this will be something good. The sentence draws a parallel between the ‘domestic fan base’ and the ‘international ‘, so it’s a good bet that this word will mean something like ‘fan base’ or ‘popularity.’ If you look at the answer choices, ‘orthodoxy’ doesn’t fit at all, so you can cross out F. ‘Incidence’ is a word that you use to describe how often something happens, not how many people are involved, so E is also out. The only choice left is D, and ‘acclaim’ does mean something like ‘popularity’ so this seems to fit.

For blank three, context clues will tell you that you want something like ‘attract’ or ‘cater to.’ ‘Impugn’ looks tempting because it looks like ‘importune,’ and ‘importune’ would be a fit for this blank. But ‘impugn’ isn’t the same word - don’t be fooled! ‘Abjure’ means exactly the opposite of what you want, so cross that off right away.

You’re left with B for blank one, D for blank two, and H for blank three. Plug these three words back into the passage, and you’ll see that they all fit and make it a coherent passage as a whole.

Question Two

Ready for the next one? Here you go!

‘Despite her discomfort with the arrangements, Maria was actually thrilled to be seated next to Piotr; she just didn’t want to show it.’

A. Initial

B. Perpetual

C. Ostensible

D. Intransigent

E. Delineated

At least this one only has one blank! Try the same technique: first use context clues to see what you would plug in the blank, and then look down the answer choices to see what you can eliminate. Pause the video right now if you need some time to work on it.

Ready for the answer? The correct answer is C.

Context clues in the sentence give you a clear hint that Maria’s ‘discomfort with the arrangements’ was actually a façade: the sentence says she was actually thrilled but just didn’t want anyone to know. So, the discomfort was an act - you want a word that somehow implies falsehood. ‘Initial’ doesn’t fit that bill, so it’s not a good fit. Neither do ‘perpetual,’ ‘intransigent,’ or ‘delineated.’ But ‘ostensible’ refers to something you show the world even though your true feelings might be very different. So, C is correct.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you got some practice working with Text Completion questions on the GRE revised General Test. Text Completion questions sound a lot harder than they really are - the best way to prepare for them is just to jump right into practicing.

When you’re working on these questions, don’t start by plugging in every single word and hoping you’ll be able to pick the right answer - that’s very confusing and inefficient. Instead, start by using context clues in the sentences to eliminate as many choices as you can, and then start comparing.

Ready to test yourself some more? Try out some more questions on the quiz!