GRE® Verbal Practice | Text Completion Q5

This is an interesting GRE text completion question that tests the your knowledge of meanings and usage of common words as well as your understanding of construct of sentences that provide contrasting information by using words such as 'while'. 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 5: While it may appear ________ the related concept, 'theme', the term 'motif' differs somewhat in usage. Any number of narrative elements with symbolic import can be ________ motifs ________ they are images, structural or stylistic devices, or other elements such as sound, physical movement, or visual components in dramatic narratives.

S No.	Blank 1	S No.	Blank 2	S No.	Blank 3
A	interchangeable with	D	determined by	G	because
B	identical to	E	classified as	H	whether or not
C	similar to	F	clubbed together as	I	although

---

---

---

Explanatory Answer

Let us start by figuring out the easiest blank. The first blank offers a clue through the keyword “While”. We know that the word while, in most cases, indicates a contrast. A simplified version of the first sentence would be: While “motif” may appear ___ to “theme”, it differs. So, the word in the blank has to be the exact opposite of the word “differs”.

Answer option B (identical to) is correct for blank 1. “Similar to” would be incorrect because it already implies that there might be differences between the two. Two things can be similar and yet differ somewhat.

Answer option A is incorrect because it places the emphasis on the interchangeability of the terms “theme” and “motif” rather than on their perceived equivalence. The true opposite of “interchangeable with” would be the “uniqueness” of the term motif. For example, if “interchangeable with” was indeed the correct answer, the sentence should have read: “while it may appear interchangeable with the term “theme”, the term “motif” is unique and has a meaning of its own.

The second and third blanks form a sentence which appears to tell us how inclusive and broad the definition of a motif is. It tells us that any one of the listed things can be a motif. The second and third blanks collaborate to give us a sentence which accomplishes that.

“Any number of narrative elements with symbolic import can be classified as motifs whether or not they are images, structural or stylistic devices, or other elements such as sound, physical movement, or visual components in dramatic narratives".

In the second blank, “determined by” is incorrect because it implies that the motif is acting to ascertain something, which is impossible. “Clubbed together as” implies that a set of diverse items have been put together in an unwieldy manner. Option E, “classified as”, gives the correct meaning to the sentence.

The answer to the third blank is not “because” or “although” – there is no causation (because is used when there is a causation) or contrast implied.

Choice B, E, and H are the correct answers.