GRE General Diagnostic

Page 2 of 5

Question 3

"Despite her long-standing reputation for being highly _________, the CEO shocked the board of directors by enthusiastically embracing the aggressively risky and entirely untested international expansion strategy."

Which of the following words best completes the sentence?

A) recalcitrant B) circumspect C) audacious D) loquacious

Question 4

"The discovery of a seemingly modern hominid skull in a geological stratum definitively dated to the early Pleistocene epoch has deeply troubled paleoanthropologists. If the radiometric dating is accurate, this profound finding implies that anatomically modern human traits emerged millions of years earlier than currently established evolutionary paradigms allow."

It can be inferred from the passage that the "established paradigms":

A) place the emergence of anatomically modern traits significantly later than the early Pleistocene. B) are strongly supported and validated by the recent discovery of this new skull. C) were developed primarily by geologists rather than modern paleoanthropologists. D) predicted that modern hominid skulls would eventually be found in early Pleistocene strata.

GRE Expert Tip: Predict the Blank

When tackling Text Completion questions, always try to predict your own word for the blank before looking at the answer choices. Looking at the choices too early can subconsciously steer you toward a trap. In Question 5, the word "Because" tells us the blank will align with their "distrust"—so predicting a word like "suspicious" or "cautious" immediately leads you to the correct answer.

Next Page: Questions 7 & 8

GRE General Diagnostic

Which of the following words best completes the sentence?

It can be inferred from the passage that the "established paradigms":

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