SC X-Ray
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, we want to emphasize three important
facts about SCs:
-
SCs contain everything you need to define the word or words
correctly. You can use the context of the sentence to figure out what
the missing words mean. You don’t need to look at the answer choices
first.
-
All of the answer choices will work grammatically in the
sentence, so you can’t use grammar to rule out any choices. Only the
meanings of words matter.
-
Regardless of the number of blanks or answer choices, you’ll
always want to choose the answer that best fits and makes the most
logical sense.
Turn the page to see what a typical Sentence Completions question looks
like.
|
Directions: The sentence below has
one blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath
the sentence are five words or sets of words. Choose the word or
set of words for the blank that best fits
the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
|
|
|
Most corporations are not in the business
of philanthropy; instead, their primary concern is to
maximize ________. |
| (A) |
goodwill |
| (B) |
profits |
| (C) |
open trade |
| (D) |
employee loyalty |
| (E) |
customer satisfaction |
|
Your job is to choose the one correct answer from among the five choices.
Here we need to choose the word or phrase that makes logical sense in the
context of the sentence. In other cases, you’ll need to find appropriate words
to fill in two blanks. In the example above, it would help to know the meaning
of philanthropy (“effort to help others”). In case you’re
wondering, the correct answer, B, makes sense in the given context.
If you don’t know the meaning of a word in the question, don’t worry; we provide
strategies to help you take a good, solid guess.
