Lesson: Introduction to Text Completion

Comment on Introduction to Text Completion

Please give me the reason why you suggest to complete sentence equivalence video first? I am finding SE difficult since I am building up synonyms so it feels that text completion seems easier. Since I am struggling with in the range of 140+ and wish to achieve 150+ kindly provide me some suggestions.
greenlight-admin's picture

Sentence Equivalence questions are very similar to Text Completion questions, and they typically have fewer words and fewer answer choices to deal with. As such, I believe that they relatively easier (in structure) to Text Completion. That's why we suggest you start with SE questions first. As far as achieving 150+ goes, that really depends on your weaknesses. When you analyze your study sessions, you need to identify exactly where you are struggling and then work on that area of weakness.

Maybe it is better to start with text completions because those are always the very first question types you will encounter in each verbal section.

on the last question, the last slot why is the answer tolerable instead of mediocre?
greenlight-admin's picture

Good question!
In this passage, the main topic concerns the enjoyment/appreciation of art.
In other words, do we or don't we like a particular piece of art?
In the last blank, the word TOLERABLE is related to whether or not someone likes a piece of art. If a piece is INTOLERABLE, then we definitely don't like/enjoy it.

Conversely, MEDIOCRE doesn't really speak to whether we like/enjoy something. If a piece of work is MEDIOCRE, do we like it or not? It's like saying a movie is OKAY or AVERAGE. With all of these words, we don't get a sense of whether one enjoys it or not.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

I don't think that helps. I'm fairly certain that the answer for the last blank is mediocre. That's comparing it to how others perceive his work as genius. So "genius" and "mediocre" are the proper comparisons here. We're not comparing LIKING/ENJOYING a piece of art. This blank directly refers to considering Allen's work as genius or not, and mediocre is the applicable term here.
greenlight-admin's picture

That's the difficult thing with GRE verbal questions. With quantitative questions, it's easy to demonstrate/prove why a correct answer is correct. With verbal questions, the correct answer is simply the one the test-makers (ETS) say is correct.

I'd argue that the word "appreciation" in the first sentence suggests the passage concerns whether people like/enjoy art.

That said, I can see your point as well.

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