GRE® Verbal Practice | Text Completion Q15

This three blanks GRE text completion question tests your knowledge of meanings and usage of common words as well as your understanding of construct of sentences. Try the question without looking at the answer explanation. If you face difficulty in arriving at the correct answer, take help from the detailed explanation provided below.

Question 15: Ironically the same countries advocating government _________ , who criticized Greece for its ___________ public spending also sponsored the most ___________ display of wealth during public functions.

S No.	Blank 1	S No.	Blank 2	S No.	Blank 3
A	caution	D	unwarranted	G	ostentatious
B	austerity	E	disproportionate	H	unnecessary
C	restraint	F	extravagant	I	deliberate

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Explanatory Answer

S No.	Word	Meaning
1	caution	Attention and care
2	austerity	enforced economy
3	restraint	controlling or holding back
4	unwarranted	lacking support or justification
5	disproportionate	being out of proportion
6	extravagant	exceeding reasonable limits
7	ostentatious	loud or conspicuous display
8	unnecessary	not required
9	deliberate	something done after thought and planning

The word “ironically”, much like the word surprisingly indicates that two phenomena that are not expected to occur together, indeed happen together.

Some countries criticized Greece for a certain kind of (maybe high or low – we don't know this yet) government spending, but the same countries sponsored the same kind of public spending. This hypocrisy by the countries is what makes the situation ironical.

Looking at the choices for blank 1, it is obvious that the countries were calling for Greece to reduce its spending (because all the words imply more caution and lesser spending, or showing restraint). So you would expect such countries to also implement the same measures, but no – they did quite the opposite. They themselves spent a lot of money. But what made it ironical was that they were criticizing Greece for its high (and possibly reckless) spending.

The best option for Blank 1 is “austerity”. Caution is too general a word (and can mean non-economical things as well). Restraint does not have the same shade of meaning as austerity when it comes to spending, because restraint is a word that requires qualification (for ex: “restraint in spending”, or “economic restraint”.)

The second blank is “extravagant”, because there is nothing to indicate that the criticism for Greece's spending was because it was unwarranted. We don't know if the spending was unwarranted.

The third blank is “ostentatious” because it shows that the same countries which advocated austerity themselves spend money extravagantly, which is what makes the situation ironical.

Choices B, F, G are the correct answers.