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GRE Verbal Practice Question Answers



Analogy Answers & Explanations

1. B
The stimulus and correct answer are really flip sides of each other, but the actions they describe share a common purpose — to get someone to do what you want him to do. In fact, if the stimulus failed — if you couldn't coax (or persuade) someone through a series of flattering and cajoling actions and speeches known as blandishments, you might take the next step and attempt to compel (B) him by making threats.

Platitudes, A, are trite, dull remarks, usually trotted out for the purpose of amusing someone. If your aim was to deter, C, someone from a particular course, there are many more effective tools than tidings, which are news, information, or data. You might batter someone, D, with insults — in a figurative sense, at least — but you would not use them to batter someone into doing something. And to exercise, E, often amounts to engaging in antics, but you don't use antics to exercise someone into doing something — not even in the alternative meaning of exercise, that is, to annoy or make uneasy.

2. A
The word filter is used as a verb. When you use a filter, an impurity is removed, so you filter to remove an impurity. The word expurgate in A means to censor, to remover obscenities — you expurgate to remove an obscenity. To whitewash, B, is to misrepresent a bad thing to make it look better. An infraction isn't removed by whitewashing it, it's only covered up, so B isn't parallel. In C, perjury is the crime of lying under oath. To testify doesn't mean to remove a false statement. In D, penance is something you do to atone for a sin, but you don't perform to remove penance. And in E, you don't vacuum to remove a carpet. So A is correct.

3. B
Intransigent means unyielding — the opposite of flexible. our bridge is "a person who is intransigent is lacking in flexibility." The only pair that looks good is B, disinterested and partisanship. One who's disinterested is unbiased — he doesn't have an interest in either side of a dispute. Partisan means partial to a particular party or cause. That's the opposite of disinterested. So partisanship, the quality of being biased, is lacking in a person who would be described as disinterested.

In A, transient means transitory, so you wouldn't say that someone transient lacks mobility. In C, dissimilar means not similar, along the same lines of variation. You can't say that something progressive lacks transition, so D is no good. The word ineluctable in E means inescapable, while modality is a longer way of saying mode.

4. C
When you dampen something, you restrain it (such as when you dampen emotions).

Going through the answer choices, when something stagnates it stops flowing, so eliminate answer A. You don't have to liquefy something to purify it, so there's no bridge here — eliminate the answer. When you dilate something, you expand it, so keep C. When you melt something, you don't disband it — there's no strong bridge here. When you stabilize something, you make it steadier — instill means "to plant." Answer C is the best answer.

5. C
An archive is a place designed for storing records.

Is a box designed for storing shoes? Some are, but not all boxes. Eliminate. Is a locker designed for storing a uniform? It's designed for storing clothes, not necessarily uniforms. is an arsenal designed to store arms? Yes. Keep this choice. Is a pantry designed to store bread? It's designed to store food, but not necessarily bread. Eliminate. Arsenide (a compound of aresenic) is not designed to store death, since death can't really be stored. Eliminate. So the answer is C.


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