Lesson 5 of 46 · Text Completion
Text Completion: vocabulary in context
Handle second meanings, misleading roots and words with the right sense but the wrong charge, and decide what to do with a word you do not know.
About 20 minutes
In this lesson
- Recognise common words used in a less familiar second meaning.
- Avoid choices that only look like the word you predicted.
- Weigh the charge and strength of a word as well as its sense.
- Decide between a word you know that fails and a word you do not know.
The idea
Context decides the meaning
Text Completion tests vocabulary, but not as a list of definitions. A choice is right only if its meaning, in this sentence, matches what the clue requires. That turns three kinds of vocabulary knowledge into points: knowing a familiar word's less familiar meaning, not being fooled by appearances, and feeling the difference between near-synonyms.
Familiar words, second meanings
Many ordinary words have a second, more formal sense that a careful sentence may call on. If a familiar word seems to make no sense in a choice list, check whether its other meaning fits.
| Word | Everyday sense | Second sense |
|---|---|---|
| qualify | meet a requirement | limit or modify a statement |
| temper | a mood or outburst | moderate, soften |
| flag | a cloth banner | weaken, lose energy |
| pedestrian | a person on foot | dull, unimaginative |
| wanting | desiring | lacking, deficient |
| sanction | a penalty | official approval |
| check | inspect | restrain, hold back |
Qualified praise is limited praise, not praise from an expert; unqualified praise is praise without reservations. A writer whose energy flags is tiring. A pedestrian essay is dull. The sentence tells you which sense is meant: look at the clue, not at the word's most common use.
Look-alikes and misleading roots
Some words look as if they mean something they do not. Roots help often enough that people trust them too much.
- Enervate means to weaken, not to energise.
- Noisome means offensive or harmful (often of a smell), not noisy.
- Restive means restless or impatient, not restful.
- Peripatetic means travelling from place to place, not "walking around" a topic.
When your prediction is "tired", a choice that looks like "energy" should make you stop, not reach for it.
Sense, charge and strength
Two words can share a basic sense and still not be interchangeable.
- Charge. Frugal and thrifty praise careful spending; stingy and miserly criticise it. If the sentence admires the person, the critical words are wrong, even though all four mean "spends little".
- Strength. Dislike and loathe, pleased and ecstatic: same direction, different strength. Words such as "outright", "utterly" or "only mildly" in the sentence tell you which strength is wanted.
- Scope. Brief is about length; terse adds abruptness. Make the prediction precise enough to tell them apart when the clue asks you to.
When you do not know a word
You will meet choices you do not know. Use them correctly:
- Predict as usual.
- Test each word you know. If one matches the prediction, choose it.
- If every word you know clearly fails, the answer is probably a word you do not know. Choose it rather than forcing a known word into a sentence it does not fit.
- If two unknown words remain, use what you can: a recognisable root or prefix, or the word's sense of positive or negative charge. Then make a quick choice and move on.
This works because wrong choices are usually wrong for a clear reason, and a known word that fails is evidence. It is not permission to pick unknown words by default: an unfamiliar word is right only after the familiar ones have been ruled out.
Building vocabulary that pays
Learn words in context, not in isolation: for each new word, write a short sentence of your own where the word could not be replaced by its opposite. Group words by meaning (words for "careful", words for "short", words for "praise") and note the charge and strength of each. That organisation is exactly what the test asks you to use.
Worked examples
Example 1: A second meaning
Her praise for the proposal was ______: she called it promising, but added that its cost estimates were "optimistic at best".
Choices: unqualified, effusive, qualified, sarcastic, belated
Clue: praise ("promising") followed by a reservation about the costs.
Predict: "praise with a reservation", that is, limited praise.
Qualified in its second sense means limited or modified, which is exactly the prediction.
Eliminate: unqualified means without reservation, the reverse. Effusive means gushing. Sarcastic would mean she did not mean "promising", which nothing suggests. Belated is about timing.
Answer
Qualified. Readers who know only the everyday sense ("having the right credentials") may reject it, or pick unqualified by mistake.
Example 2: A misleading look-alike
After three days of walking in the heat, the hikers were thoroughly ______ and could barely lift their packs.
Choices: invigorated, elated, energised, enervated, restive
Clue: "could barely lift their packs" after three days in the heat.
Predict: "worn out, weak".
Enervated means drained of energy, weakened. It looks like energised, but means nearly the opposite.
Eliminate: invigorated, energised and elated all point the other way. Restive means restless, which does not match people who can barely lift a pack.
Answer
Enervated. Energised is the trap for anyone who guesses meaning from appearance.
Example 3: Same sense, different charge
What began as sensible thrift hardened over the years into outright ______: the family refused to heat the house even when the pipes froze.
Choices: generosity, frugality, prudence, parsimony, extravagance
Clue: thrift "hardened into" something, and the example (no heat even when pipes froze) is extreme.
Predict: "excessive, harsh unwillingness to spend". "Outright" asks for a strong, critical word.
Parsimony means extreme unwillingness to spend money, which matches.
Eliminate: frugality and prudence are the sensible starting point the sentence says was left behind. Generosity and extravagance are the reverse.
Answer
Parsimony. Frugality has the right sense but the wrong charge and strength: it is the "sensible thrift" the habit hardened out of.
Common traps
Rejecting a familiar word too fast
If a common word seems odd in the sentence, check its second meaning before ruling it out. Qualify, flag, temper and pedestrian are typical. The odd fit is often the point.
Trusting the look of a word
Enervate, noisome and restive look like words they are not related to in meaning. If you are relying on appearance alone, treat the choice as unknown and use elimination instead.
Right sense, wrong charge
A choice that means roughly the right thing but praises where the sentence criticises (or the reverse) is wrong. Check the charge of your prediction: is the writer admiring or disapproving?
Choosing the unknown word first
An unfamiliar word is not more likely to be right because it is unfamiliar. Pick it only after the words you know have each failed for a reason you can name.
Check yourself
Answer each question before you open its answer.
Question 1: A careful conclusion
Text Completion
The scientist was careful to ______ her conclusion, noting that the trial had included only forty patients and had lasted just six weeks.
- A.trumpet
- B.abandon
- C.corroborate
- D.qualify
- E.plagiarise
Show the answer
Answer: D. qualify
Working
The clue is that she pointed out the trial's small size and short length: she limited the reach of her conclusion. In its second sense, to qualify a statement is to limit or modify it.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. To trumpet is to announce loudly; pointing out a small sample and a short trial does the opposite.
- B. She still holds the conclusion; noting limits on it is not giving it up.
- C. To corroborate is to confirm with further evidence. Noting the trial's limits adds no evidence; it narrows the claim.
- E. Copying someone else's work has nothing to do with stating the limits of a trial.
What carries over
When a sentence describes limiting or softening a claim, look for the second senses of words like qualify and temper.
Question 2: The novel's second half
Text Completion
The second half of the novel is disappointingly ______: after the inventive opening chapters, the plot settles into predictable episodes told in flat, ordinary prose.
- A.peripatetic
- B.ornate
- C.pedestrian
- D.harrowing
- E.idiosyncratic
Show the answer
Answer: C. pedestrian
Working
After the colon, the clue lists predictable episodes and flat, ordinary prose, set against an inventive opening. The prediction is "dull, unimaginative", which is the second sense of pedestrian.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. This means travelling from place to place. It may call to mind "walking", but nothing in the sentence is about travel.
- B. Ornate prose is elaborate and decorated, which contradicts "flat, ordinary prose".
- D. Harrowing means deeply distressing; predictable episodes in flat prose are dull, not distressing.
- E. This means peculiar to one person, unusual; the sentence says the second half is predictable and ordinary.
What carries over
An everyday word that seems out of place in the list may be there in its second meaning; test that meaning against the clue.
Question 3: Hour four of the debate
Text Completion
By the fourth hour of the debate, the audience's attention had begun to ______, and many people were checking their phones.
- A.rally
- B.sharpen
- C.crystallise
- D.intensify
- E.flag
Show the answer
Answer: E. flag
Working
Four hours in, with people turning to their phones, attention was weakening. As a verb, flag means to lose energy or become weaker, so "attention had begun to flag" is the only choice in the right direction.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Attention that rallies recovers and grows, the reverse of an audience turning to its phones.
- B. Sharpening attention is the opposite of what checking phones shows.
- C. To crystallise is to become clear and definite; it does not describe attention fading.
- D. This is the reverse direction: attention was weakening, not growing stronger.
What carries over
Short everyday words like flag, check and temper often appear as verbs with a formal meaning.
Key points
Context decides which meaning of a word is in play; check second meanings before rejecting a familiar word.
Do not trust a word because it looks like your prediction.
Match charge and strength as well as basic sense.
Choose an unknown word only after every known word has failed for a nameable reason.
All questions here are original and written for UniExamer; none comes from the test maker.
Written by the UniExamer team with AI assistance. Every worked example and check question was re-solved by an independent checker before publication. No subject expert has reviewed this lesson yet. If you find a mistake, write to support@uniexamer.com.