Sentence Completions: Verbs - ISEE Middle Level: Verbal Reasoning

Sarah uses visual art and poetry as a way of expressing her feelings or conveying her feelings. Thus, convey is the best word to get across the idea of revealing her feelings through her art.

Since Heidi was parched at the end of the hike, this indicates that she drank too little on the hike. During the hike, she tried to quench or satisfy her thirst, but she could not with the amount of water she brought with her.

Because of the sentence's parallel structure, we can infer that we are looking for a verb, so while "ductile" sounds like duck and "fowl" refers to birds, neither of them are the correct answer. From the sentence's context, we can tell that we are looking for a verb that means something like walked, since we know that the duck moved across the grass to follow the tourists, and ducks move across grass by walking. Of the answer choices remaining, only "waddled" and "stomped" describe movement. Since "stomp" means to make a lot of noise while walking, often to demonstrate one's anger, and "waddle" means to walk with small steps while swinging one's body back and forth, "waddle" is the better choice and the correct answer.

We can infer that we need to find a verb that means something like drifted and can refer to air and smells. "Wafted" and "gusted" appear to be our best choices. Since "gusted" refers to wind and means blew in gusts, it seems a bit strong for our sentence's context. (It doesn't seem like there was any wind blowing out of the kitchen.) "Wafted," however, means passed through the air gently and fits the context of the sentence very well, so "wafted" is the best answer.

Be careful with that, do not mar the surface! Whenever something is marred, it is scratched up or broken.

She is strong, she will not falter. Faltering refers to failing or becoming unsteady. Someone who is strong, is unlikely to falter (at least at most physical tasks).

Though the other choices do make sense, they would only be found in very specific contexts. While the use of "falter" would be the most common choice to fill in the blank.

I hope this heavy pack doesn't encumber you too much. Encumber most nearly means burden or weigh-down. A heavy pack is very likely to encumber someone.

We know from the sentence's context that George did not expect any rain because of the incorrect weather report, so we need to pick out a verb that means something like "expect." While "see" might look like a correct answer, a sudden downpour occurred and George was drenched, so we can reasonably conclude that George saw rain. "Anticipate," however, is a verb that can mean "regard as probable; expect or predict" or "guess or be aware of what will happen and take action in order to be prepared." Since "anticipate" is the answer choice closest in meaning to "expect" and best fits the sentence, "anticipate" is the correct answer.

The most appropriate answer is "spurned" because it means rejected or refused, which is what the sentence's subject is doing. "Absconded" means ran away, "elided" means omitted, "stoked" means encouraged, and "formulated" means fashioned, planned or systematically created.

Since we know that the empty fuel tanks are "releas\[ed\]...into space when no longer needed," we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "release." Since "jettison" is a verb meaning "throw or drop something from an aircraft or ship" or "abandon or discard someone or something that is no longer wanted," "jettison" best fits the context of the sentence and is the correct answer.

We can infer that the dog moved toward the squirrel in some way, and can narrow our answer choices down to "danced," "hopped," and "lunged." "Danced" does not make sense in the sentence's context, and in picking between "hopped" and "lunged," "lunged" is the better choice, as "lunged" means "made a sudden forward movement." So, "lunged" is the correct answer.

So the sentence is fairly straightforward, and it's clear that Petunia needs to feel something opposite from "hate" about the chocolate cake with ice cream. Betrayed is not the opposite of hate, and neither is horded, both words do not make sense in context. Avoided is not a feeling, so it doesn't keep up the parallel sentence structure, but it also is not what Petunia would do to something she liked. Loves is close, she could love chocolate cake and ice cream, but it is in the present tense, while the demo sentence is in the past. So "adored" is the proper answer.

In this context, we are looking for a verb of motion, in the past tense. By that criteria, sought and reaches can both be eliminated, as well as languished, which means to grow weak. So between towered and keeled, it makes more sense that the speaker would be overcome with beauty at a tall, majestic tree reminiscent of a skyscraper than one falling over-- the best answer is towered.

Since the sentence tells us that Winston got in trouble for disobeying the library's noise policy, and can infer that libraries are typically quiet places, we know that we need to pick out an answer that has to do with noise, specifically loud noises and even more specifically loud speech. Only three answer choices have to do with noise: "bellowed," "whispered," and "peeped." Because "whispered" and "peeped" both refer to quiet noises or speech, neither can be the correct answer, but "bellowed," which means "shouted something with a deep loud roar" fits the context of the sentence. So, "bellowed" is the correct answer.

We can infer that because Kelly "knew that making any noise would startle \[the rat\]" and scare it off, "making it more difficult to remove," she did not make any noise, and so had to stifle her urge to scream. So, we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "stifle." "Repress," a verb that means "restrain, prevent, or inhibit the expression or development of something," is the best answer choice because it best fits the sentence's context.

"Lauded" is most appropriate here because it means celebrated or honored, which fits the context of the sentence and the actions of the manager. "Hailed" means called out to while "chided" and "castigated" both mean scolded, with "castigated" having the more intense meaning. It would also make little sense for a manager to have "decried" successful employees, because this would mean that he criticized or denounced them.

We can infer from the sentence that we've got to pick out a verb that means something like "crumbles," because "anything \[built\] out of it is likely to crumble in cold weather." "Hardens" might seem like a potentially correct answer, but in the context of the sentence, it doesn't make much sense because if a metal hardened in cold weather, it would likely still be useable, or even preferable to other materials. So, "hardens" cannot be the correct answer., "Disintegrates," however, is a verb that means "breaks up into small parts, typically as the result of impact or decay," and because "disintegrates" best describes how the metal "crumble\[s\] in cold weather," "disintegrates" is the correct answer.

We need to pick out a word that means something like "trusted," because we know that Sam "could trust Larry to remember to turn \[his homework\] in for him." While "gave" might look like a potentially correct answer, "gave" would not be grammatically correct if used in the sentence - Sam would not "gave his friend Larry with his homework." So, "gave" cannot be the correct answer. "Entrusted," however, is a verb that can mean either "assigned the responsibility for doing something to someone" or "put something into someone's care or protection." Because "entrusted" best describes how Sam gave Larry his homework to turn in, "entrusted" is the correct answer.

We know that the rival team "allowed \[the school's new player\] to score twelve points because they misjudged him and didn't guard him enough," so we can infer that we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "misjudged." While both "exaggerated" and "underestimated" are similar in meaning to "misjudged," "exaggerated" would not make sense in the sentence's context because if the rival team had exaggerated the new player's talent, one would assume that they would have guarded him more. "Underestimated" is a verb that means "estimated something to be smaller or less important than it actually is" or "regarded someone as less capable than they really are," and because "underestimated" best fits the context of the sentence, "underestimated" is the correct answer.