GRE Text Completion Practice

The colon is a support (+) signal: what follows explains why the reputation should be characterized a certain way.

Apply the Math Strategy

The known evidence is strongly inconsistent with weakness: people who have worked with Blake call him disciplined, intellectually formidable, and very tough. Because the colon supports the first clause, the blank must describe the reputation for weakness as inaccurate or misleading.

$\text{Evidence against weakness} \times \text{Support (+)} = \text{misleading reputation}$

Target meaning: apparently plausible but actually false or misleading.

Answer choice analysis

Specious — Correct. “Specious” means superficially plausible but actually false or misleading, exactly matching a reputation contradicted by direct experience.

Pervasive means widespread. The issue is the reputation’s accuracy, not how widely it is held.

Irreversible means impossible to undo. Nothing suggests the reputation cannot change.

Trivial means unimportant. The evidence challenges whether the reputation is true, not whether it matters.

Ambivalent means mixed or conflicted. That does not describe the relation between the reputation and the evidence.

Things to Remember:

• A colon commonly signals support: the material after it explains or justifies what comes before.
• Derive the blank’s target meaning from sentence logic before comparing vocabulary choices.

The word “While” is a contrast (–) signal. It contrasts the early biographies with Strachey’s later irreverent treatment.

Apply the Math Strategy

The later period is clearly negative toward Nightingale: Strachey’s essay made it acceptable and even fashionable to criticize her. Because “while” creates a contrast, the earlier biographies must have had the opposite attitude—strongly admiring or flattering.

$\text{later criticism (negative)} \times \text{contrast (–)} = \text{earlier praise (positive)}$

Target meaning: excessively flattering or deferential.

Time Contrast

The sentence explicitly sets two periods against each other: early biographies versus the new era beginning with the 1918 essay. The later era normalized criticism, so the earlier era must have been characterized by the opposite tendency—uncritical praise.

Answer choice analysis

(Choice A) Unsympathetic means lacking sympathy. That would align with criticism rather than contrast with it.

(Choice B) Sycophantic — Correct. “Sycophantic” means excessively flattering or deferential, exactly matching the overly admiring attitude required for the early biographies.

(Choice C) Unsentimental means not influenced by tender or nostalgic feeling. That is closer to Strachey’s irreverent approach than to the earlier, admiring biographies.

(Choice D) Censorious means severely critical. It has the same direction as the later critical era and therefore violates the contrast.

(Choice E) Pedantic means overly concerned with minor details or formal learning. The sentence contrasts attitudes toward Nightingale, not scholarly fussiness.

Things to Remember:

• Contrast words such as “while” reverse the direction of the known idea.
• When two distinct historical periods are explicitly contrasted, use Time Contrast to infer opposite tendencies.
• Match the exact semantic dimension of the contrast; here it is praise versus criticism.

The phrase “when in reality” reverses the politicians’ implication that the founders consistently agreed with one another.

Apply the Math Strategy

The known idea is concurrence, meaning agreement. The signal “when in reality” creates a contrast (–). Agreement × Contrast (–) = disagreement, so the blank must describe a group whose members often argued or disagreed.

Target meaning: something close to “argumentative” or “prone to disagreement.”

Answer choice analysis

Erudite means learned or scholarly. The sentence is contrasting agreement with disagreement, not discussing education.

Innovative means inventive or original. That does not oppose the earlier idea that the founders concurred.

Predictable means easy to anticipate. It does not express internal disagreement among the thinkers.

Contentious — Correct. It means argumentative or inclined to dispute, exactly matching the required contrast with consistent concurrence.

Methodical means systematic and orderly. That quality is unrelated to whether the founders agreed with one another.

Things to Remember:

• Contrast signals require the blank to move in the opposite semantic direction from the known idea.
• Predict a plain-English target before checking choices so attractive but off-topic vocabulary is easier to eliminate.