SAT sentence completion practice test 21

1. Although it stayed in business for several months, the company was actually ------ and met its financial obligations only by engaging in ------- activities.

A. Insolvent… fraudulent
B. Prudent… speculative
C. Autonomous… subordinate
D. Bankrupt… charitable
E. Stable… manipulative

2. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein centers on a scientist's -------, the overweening pride that makes him believe he can usurp nature.

A. obstinacy
B. hubris
C. impetuosity
D. valor
E. callousness

3. May Sarton had a -------- career: it ------- from 1929, when Poetry magazine published her early sonnets, to 1994, when her last collection of poems came out.

A. Limited…. Developed
B. Diverse… foundered
C. Variable… declined
D. Lengthy… lasted
E. Sedate… soared

4. A recent data recording a bottlenose whale's phenomenal dive of over 4700 feet ------ earlier ------ that such whales were among the sea's deepest divers.

A. Refuted… theories
B. Challenged… predictions
C. Confirmed… speculations
D. Validated… disclaimers
E. Substantiated… doubts

5. The residents of town lived ----- lives; no one indulged in wild or ----- life

A. Rambunctious… indecent
B. Extravagant… excessive
C. Secluded… scrupulous
D. Circumscribed…. Impulsive
E. Irreverent… animated

6. The study's warning that monkey populations were declining in Guatemala and Mexico was ------- by new evidence that nearby populations along the Belize River were --------.

A. Corroborated… prospering
B. Confirmed… extant
C. Belied… dwindling
D. Diminished… debilitated
E. Tempered… thriving

7. The staff complained the managemet was -------, focusing on short-term profits while disregarding the long-term welfare of the corporation.

A. irresolute
B. officious
C. rancorous
D. punctilious
E. myopic

8. Efforts are finally being made to ------ the traffic congestion that plagues the downtown area.

A. engage
B. alleviate
C. transport
D. regenerate
E. trivialize

9. Though outwardly ------, the speaker was actually quite disturbed by the tumultuous crowd.

A. apprehensive
B. agitated
C. furious
D. serene
E. considerate

10. K'ang-hsi, emperor of China from 1661 to 1722, expressed his private thoughts with a ------ rarely found in the usually ------- rulers of great empire.

A. Peacefulness… placid
B. Forthrightness… reserved
C. Fairness… dilatory
D. Meticulousness… accessible
E. Peevishness… irritable

11. Farming has been profitable on the Great Plains for many decades, but by 1938 -------- agricultural practices and years of inadequate precipitation had ------- the land.

A. Conscientious… despoiled
B. Incompetent… sustained
C. Shrewd… debilitated
D. Innovative… fertilized
E. Imprudent… denuded

12. Cathedrals usually take decades, even centuries, to complete; thus no one expected the National Cathedral to be built with -------.

A. dispatch
B. presumption
C. durability
D. deliberation
E. reverence

13. New York designer Anna Sui creates eclectic clothes that represent an ------- of playful, 1970's funky style fused with an edgy, urban sensibility.

A. induction
B. amalgam
C. immersion
D. occlusion
E. estrangement

14. Once the principal ------- that the fire alarm had been set off by accident, she apologized to the the suspected students and announced that they had been -------.

A. Realized… exornerated
B. Denied… reprimanded
C. Perceived… enlightened
D. Understood… apprehended
E. Confirmed… obligated

15. Although the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall had ------ that his papers be available only to scholars, the Library of Congress ------- his wishes and exhibited them to the general public.

A. implied… publicized
B. denied… repealed
C. stipulated… disregarded
D. revealed… excecuted
E. insisted… honored

16. Royal garments found in the tombs of ancient Egyptians reveal no evidence of having been mended: this discovery suggests that the rulers of Egypt opted for ------- rather than -------.

A. Disposal… repair
B. Sacrifice… opulence
C. Wastefulness… comfort
D. Spirituality… worldliness
E. Humiliation… charity