SAT sentence completion practice test 8

1. Seeking to ------- what people view and read by determining what art and literature should be available, censorship laws directly ------- free expression.

A. govern . . liberate
B. juxtapose . . prescribe
C. defer . . nullify
D. control . . prohibit
E. balance . . promote

2. Myra laughed exuberantly and embraced her friends repeatedly, so ------- was she about having been selected.

A. ambivalent
B. quizzical
C. euphoric
D. jaded
E. exacting

3. It would be a waste of time for any reviewer to bother ------- a book whose utter worthlessness is ------- to even the least discerning reader.

A. enjoying . . doubtful
B. mocking . . figurative
C. assessing . . welcome
D. condemning . . obvious
E. ignoring . . obnoxious

4. The new policy has been called a quiet revolution because, though introduced without -------, it is already producing ------- changes.

A. warning . . specious
B. fanfare . . momentous
C. concealment . . transient
D. hesitation . . ostensible
E. debate . . negligible

5. When two chemical compounds are combined, a ------- effect can be achieved: the resulting combination can be more potent than either of the individual compounds alone.

A. synergistic
B. naturalistic
C. competitive
D. retroactive
E. neutralizing

6. Artists who are described as ------- are the first to experiment with new forms or concepts.

A. aesthetic
B. partisan
C. decorous
D. cerebral
E. avant-garde

7. Responding to criticism that the script was rambling and -------, the new screenwriter revised the dialogue for greater succinctness and -------.

A. engaging . . simplicity
B. subjective . . ambiguity
C. muddled . . clarity
D. terse . . emptiness
E. difficult . . abstraction

8. During the 1990's, Shanghai benefited from an archi-tectural -------, the result of a dramatic increase in innovative and artistic building.

A. intransigence
B. plenitude
C. desecration
D. stagnation
E. renaissance

9. Many subatomic nuclear particles are ------- and nearly -------: they are hard to track as well as to detect.

A. unstable . . explosive
B. elusive . . imperceptible
C. minute . . immobile
D. charged . . reactive
E. tenuous . . indivisible

10. The crafty child tricked his innocent brother, a par-ticularly ------- and trusting boy, into committing a mischievous prank.

A. guileless
B. intrusive
C. astute
D. opportunistic
E. circumspect

11. Ellen Ochoa's ------- with the apparatus in the space shuttle Discovery was apparent when she adroitly manipulated the shuttle's robot arm.

A. compromise
B. humility
C. machinations
D. synergy
E. deftness

12. Much of our knowledge of dinosaurs comes from excavated bones, which, in ------- other clues such as fossilized tracks and eggs, help us to ------- the evolution of these creatures.

A. convergence with . . supplant
B. divergence from . . decode
C. dependence on . . belie
D. opposition to . . amplify
E. conjunction with . . trace

13. Vernal pools are among the most ------- of ponds: they form as a result of snowmelt and a high water table in winter, and then they ------- by late summer.

A. transitory . . expand
B. anachronistic . . overflow
C. immutable . . drain
D. itinerant . . teem
E. ephemeral . . evaporate

14. The ------- experiences of Madonna Swan, the 1983 North American Indian Woman of the Year, cannot be fully appreciated if they are ------- in a tidy summary.

A. varied . . interposed
B. diverse . . condensed
C. profound . . magnified
D. transformative . . embellished
E. impressive . . immersed

15. The representative was a traditionalist, reluctant to support any legislation inconsistent with the nation's most ------- principles.

A. orthodox
B. impassioned
C. precarious
D. impressionable
E. indeterminate

16. The author constructed a scenario in which playful, creative children are rewarded for their ------- and strict, dour adults are punished for their -------.

A. spontaneity . . rigidity
B. digressions . . mirth
C. solemnity . . malice
D. inflexibility . . rigor
E. improvisations . . buoyancy