GRE Verbal Challenge Question #25:
The very title of Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor trilogy suggests a robust and (i) _________ tale, and the bare outline seems to fit, as the protagonist Guy Crouchback serves as a commando, trains as a paratrooper, and is dispatched to Yugoslavia to aid the partisans. In fact, however, Crouchback is an extraordinarily (ii) _________ man, ill-at-ease with his younger and more (iii) _________ fellow officers, and almost never motivated by appetite or impulse.
Blank (i)
a) pell-mell
b) red-blooded
c) avant-garde
Blank(ii)
d) Effete
e) Venerable
f) Literary
Blank(iii)
g) vigorous
h) puerile
i) timorous
Explanation:
The first word should echo “robust,” and fit the military derring-do described in the bare outline. Red-blooded suggests virility and heartiness. “In fact, however” suggests that Crouchback is not actually robust, and he is further described as “ill-at-ease,” and never motivated by appetite or impulse. These suggest something like “feeble” or “impotent.”
Effete is even better, as it describes someone lacking vigor and energy. For your third word, the phrasing “and more” suggests a contrast with Crouchback; we’re not looking, then, for something that is a pure synonym for “younger” but for something that goes against the description of Crouchback as “effete.” Maybe “energetic.” The best answer is vigorous. Puerile is a trap — it seems to echo “younger,” but the sentence does not suggest that these younger officers are immature
Correct Choices : B, D, G ( Red-blooded, effete, vigorous.)
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