GRE® Verbal | Text Completion Question 6

This is a 3-blank GRE text completion (GRE TC) practice question. A good example of finding the appropriate word to fill the blanks of this sentence based on the context of the sentence. 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 6: The corrupt politician ______ in his answers, but the scandal was brought to light when a/an _______ investigator discovered ________ in the accounts given by various witnesses.

S No.	Blank 1	S No.	Blank 2	S No.	Blank 3
A	vilified	D	unscrupulous	G	imprudence
B	prevaricated	E	magnanimous	H	aberrations
C	castigated	F	astute	I	vacillations

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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	Vilified	Criticized
B	Prevaricated	Cheated, or dodged the truth
C	Castigated	Criticized
D	Unscrupulous	Dishonest
E	Magnanimous	Generous
F	Astute	Shrewd and clever
G	Imprudence	Carelessness
H	Aberrations	Abnormalities
I	Vacillations	Fluctuations

To fill in the blanks effectively, we need to understand the details of the story. We can do this by breaking down the events presented in the sentence and re-ordering them in a way that makes sense to us.

There was a scandal involving a politician. This scandal was discovered by a reporter. How did the reporter discover the scandal? He questioned several people who gave them their accounts of what happened. Now, if there was nothing wrong, the accounts given by various people should have matched. But people gave varying accounts of the events concerning the scandal. This “aberration” in accounts is probably what led the reporter to uncover the scandal.

Since the reporter figured out all of this, he or she must have been clever (or astute).

Now, the scandal coming to light is not in the interest of the politician. So he would have tried to lie about it, or divert attention from it. He must have prevaricated in his statements about the scandal.

Choices B, F, and H are the correct answers.