GRE Text Completion

On the GRE one of the question types that you will come across are the text completion questions. This is a very interesting question type that tests you on critical thinking; reasoning, evaluation, interpretation skills.

A typical text completion question will look like this:

It derives as no astonishment that football team have strategy to play; the reality of the strategy, on the other hand, can often be _________.

A expectable

B confusing

C excellent

D unambiguous

E unexpected

On a text completion question, you will be presented with text from which important words will be omitted; you must guess the correct word that will complete the sentence in a meaningful and coherent manner.

Text completion questions usually have one to five sentences. These sentences may have only one blank in which case it’s called one blank text completion. Or the sentence may have two blanks and that’s called two blank text completion or there maybe three blanks which is called three blank text completion.

In case of a one blank text completion, the number of answer choices given will be five. For two and three blanks, the number of answer choices will be three in number. All the answer choices given are independent of each other. No answer choice is dependent on other answer choices. There is only a single correct answer which consists of one choice for each blank. There is no credit for partially correct answers.

Below are the steps that you can follow to answer text completion:

Step 1: Read out the sentence. Before you start the process of answering the question, read the entire sentence completely, till the end. Do not look at the answer choices at this stage just stay with the sentence and try to grasp the meaning of it.

Step 2: Once you have gone through the sentence try identifying the target. The target of a sentence is the subject that the sentence is talking about. Every sentence has a target that the sentence revolves around. Ask yourself – What is the sentence talking about, who is the subject of this sentence? What/who is the target of this sentence?

Step 3: The next thing to look out for is the clue of the sentence. ‘Clue’ is a word that gives you a hint as to what the answer could be. The clue helps you to predict an answer.

Step 4: The Pivot is what tells you the relationship between the blank and the clue. Pivot can be words or it can be punctuations.

Below is a list of some common pivot words, phrases, and structures:

Step 5: Now that you have all these pointers you must predict a word for the blank by keeping the above pointers in mind.

Step 6: Lastly match the word that you predict with the answer choices that are presented.

Let’s solve a text completion question by applying the steps given above:

Step 1: Read the entire sentence completely, till the end. Do not look at the answer choices at this stage just stay with the sentence and try to grasp the meaning of it.

Question:

Dominant interests often benefit most from _________ of governmental interference in business, since they are able to take care of themselves if left alone.

1. intensification
2. authorization
3. centralization
4. improvisation
5. elimination

Step 2: Once you have gone through the sentence try identifying the target. The target of a sentence is the subject that the sentence is talking about. Every sentence has a target that the sentence revolves around. Ask yourself – What is the sentence talking about, who is the subject of this sentence? What/who is the target of this sentence?

Dominant interests often benefit most from _________ of governmental interference in business, since they are able to take care of themselves if left alone.

The ones who have guessed ‘dominant interests’ as the target are right. The first word of the sentence itself is the subject of the sentence. If you notice Interest is used as a noun over here.

Step 3: Look out for the clue of the sentence. Clue is a word that gives you a hint as to what the answer could be. Use the clue to predict an answer.

What do you’ll think is the clue in this sentence? The sentence says that dominant interests are able to take care of themselves if left alone. And that is where the clue lies; ‘if left alone’. So the blank that we choose must bring this point out.

Step 4: Find the pivot word that hints at the relationship between the blank and the clue. They can be words or punctuations.

For this particular text the comma and the word ‘since’ are the pivot words. The comma suggests that the blank is in the same direction as the given text. The blank must have a word that shows that dominant interests when left alone from governmental interference will do well since they can take care of themselves. Hence the blank should agree with the clue.

Step 5: Predict a word for the blank.

Absence is a good choice. In the absence of governmental interference, the dominant interest will do well as its beneficial for them. You may have come up with a different word but that’s fine as long as the guessed words meaning is along the lines of absence.

Step 6: Match the word absence with the answer choices that are given.

1. intensification
2. authorization
3. centralization
4. improvisation
5. elimination

1. Intensification does not match. It means to make something more intense. The word does not fit in this context of the sentence.
2. Authorization. Though this word is related to government but is not the right choice.
3. Centralization means bringing activities together does not match absence
4. Improvisation means to create spontaneously again it does not match our blank
5. Elimination means removal of something and is the correct answer choice as it is close in meaning to absence.

Now read the sentence with the answer plugged in.

Dominant interests often benefit most from elimination of governmental interference in business, since they are able to take care of themselves if left alone.