Verbal Challenge #20: the First World War, 60,000 British soldiers died....

GRE Sentence Equivalence Question #20

Emblematic of the slaughter of the First World War, 60,000 British soldiers died for naught on the first day of the battle of the Somme, literally consumed into a stew of blood and _________.

A) Grief
B) Gore
C) Steel
D) Bullets
E) Carnage
F) Anguish

Explanation:

Correct Choice : ( B, E ) : Gore, carnage

While many of the words make sense, the words slaughter and blood demand the correct pair. Grief and anguish are an incorrect pair (grief is especially weird — generally, other people experience grief after someone dies, rather than a person feeling grief over his own violent death).