A Guide to the GRE/Sentence Completion Strategy

Sentence Completion Strategy

Determine what the word in the sentence is doing, and then define the words in the blanks to see which matches.

7. The development of colored dyes would ultimately _____ to the benefit of the middle class artisans who became _____ at using them and _____ their very utility.

(A) inure (D) adept (G) exploiting (B) tirade (E) instilled (H) traversing (C) engulf (F) aggrandized (I) corroborating

For example, the first blank above is describing what the dyes did with regard to the middle class. The correct answer is “inure”, which means to go towards something. The second blank is describing the artisans' disposition toward using the dyes. In this case, the correct answer is “adept”, meaning skill. Finally, the third word is describing what the artisans did with regard to the utility of the dyes. The correct word is “exploiting”, which means using or utilizing something.

As can be seen, sentence completion comes down to knowing what the words mean. The following pages contain a series of “quiz lists” to practice the vocabulary words from the previous pages.