The professor's manner was so ______ that students hesitated to approach her with even the simplest question.
(A) affable (B) forbidding (C) approachable (D) austere (E) garrulous (F) magnanimous
Predict: Students "hesitated to approach" her → her manner was cold and off-putting. Target meaning: "intimidating / severe."
Find the pair: Forbidding (B) means stern and unwelcoming; austere (D) means severe and forbidding. They match the prediction and each other. Affable (A) and approachable (C) are a synonym pair meaning "friendly" — the trap, since they mean the opposite. Garrulous (E) means talkative and magnanimous (F) means generous; each is an orphan with no partner and no fit.
Answer: (B) forbidding and (D) austere.
The senator's address, though delivered with evident conviction, was ultimately ______: it offered stirring cadences but not a single concrete proposal.
(A) eloquent (B) vacuous (C) articulate (D) hollow (E) incendiary (F) seditious
Predict: The colon defines the blank: "stirring cadences but not a single concrete proposal" → full of sound, empty of substance. Target: "empty."
Find the pair: Vacuous (B) and hollow (D) both mean lacking substance — they fit and match each other. Eloquent (A) and articulate (C) are a synonym pair, but they praise the speech's delivery; the sentence's "but not a single concrete proposal" is a criticism, so they are the trap. Incendiary (E) and seditious (F) are near-synonyms too (inflammatory / rebellious), but nothing in the sentence marks the speech as provocative — a second trap pair placed to reward careless matching.
Answer: (B) vacuous and (D) hollow. Note that this item contains two synonym pairs designed to distract; only the pair that matches the sentence's logic counts.
Far from the ______ recluse of popular legend, the poet in fact kept up a vast correspondence and hosted a weekly salon crowded with fellow writers.
(A) saturnine (B) gregarious (C) morose (D) convivial (E) eccentric (F) prolific
Predict: "Far from the ___ recluse … in fact kept up a vast correspondence and hosted a … salon" → the legend paints him as gloomy and withdrawn, but reality is lively and social. The blank describes the legend, so predict: "gloomy / sullen."
Find the pair: Saturnine (A) and morose (C) both mean gloomy and sullen — they fit the legendary image and match each other. Gregarious (B) and convivial (D) are a synonym pair meaning "sociable," but they describe the real poet, not the legend the sentence is negating — the trap. Eccentric (E) fits loosely but has no partner (nothing else means "unconventional"), so it is an orphan; prolific (F) is likewise an orphan. Eliminating the orphans leaves the gloomy pair and the sociable trap pair, and logic selects the gloomy one.
Answer: (A) saturnine and (C) morose.