GRE® Verbal Practice | Text Completion Q9

This is an interesting 3 blank GRE Text Completion question about tennis legend Sampras and the highs and lows that he went through. Knowing the meaning for the GRE words tested in this question is crucial to getting the answer to this GRE vocabulary test right. 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 9: Like other great champions, Sampras has also experienced ____ in his career: He has had his moments of _____ and he has also suffered ____.

S No.	Blank 1	S No.	Blank 2	S No.	Blank 3
A	vacillations	D	discord	G	tribulations
B	fickleness	E	euphoria	H	constraints
C	capriciousness	F	candidness	I	attenuation

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Explanatory Answer

Meanings for the words given in this question are provided in the table. Before going through the detailed explanation, check whether you are able to arrive at the answer after knowing meanings for the words.

S No.	Word	Meaning
A	Vacillations	Fluctuations
B	Fickleness	Uncertainty. The state of being changeable
C	Capriciousness	Instability, or variability
D	Discord	Disharmony
E	Euphoria	Extreme joy
F	Candidness	Innocence or honesty
G	Tribulations	Difficulties
H	Constraints	Limitation or restriction
I	Attenuation	Lessening, or weakening

In case of sentences with multiple blanks, we can start by filling in the easiest blank(s) first, and then work our way around the sentence. Here, the easiest blanks are the second and the third, which are separated by the keyword “also”.

Rearranging the second part of the sentence, we see that Sampras has suffered ____ and he has ALSO had ____ moments. The blank that immediately follows suffered has to be a negative. So second blank has to be a positive word. Blank 2 in this sentence has to be “euphoria”. Sampras has had moments of euphoria in his career. He has ALSO suffered difficulties, so blank 3 has to be “tribulations”.

Attenuation cannot be an appropriate choice for Blank 3 because it would mean that his career had been on a downward path. Constraints are restrictions and do not describe difficulties.

The first blank describes how Sampras has experienced both successes and difficulties. These are fluctuations that Sampras has seen in his career. The word that perfectly captures this meaning is “vacillations”. Capriciousness and Fickleness convey a negative meaning, and cast his career in a bad light. Vacillations is a more neutral word which just indicates changing fortunes.

Choices A, E, and G are the correct answers.