You've Unlocked a New GRE Question!

Text Solution:

Since “dampening (lessening) the hopes of the fledgling enterprise” further describes “economic conditions,” and thus the sentence conveys agreement, we can infer that economic conditions must not have been good.

Thus, propitious/advantageous (favorable, promising) are the opposite of what make sense in context. Propitious/advantageous economic conditions would not have the effect of “dampening the hopes of the fledgling enterprise.” Rather, such conditions would inspire hope. Eliminate (A) and (E).

Bleak/inauspicious (not promising, not encouraging) are antonyms of propitious/advantageous, and thus create the agreement we need. Economic conditions that “remained bleak/inauspicious for much of the decade” would indeed dampen hopes. Choices (B) and (D) appear to be correct, but let’s analyze the remaining two choices just to be sure.

Choices (C) and (F), “consistent” (steady, unchanging) and “capricious” (unpredictable, variable) are antonyms of each other, and thus create opposite sentence meanings. “Consistent” economic conditions are the opposite of what would dampen hopes, whereas “capricious” economic conditions are logical in context. However, since “capricious” does not pair with any other answer choice, it cannot possibly be correct. So, we can eliminate both (C) and (F).

Thus, choices (B) and (D), bleak/inauspicious, are the only answers that logically complete the sentence and create the same sentence meaning.

LEARNING JOURNAL

What went wrong, and what can you do differently next time?

Was there a particular sticking point, breakdown in your logic or conceptual knowledge, bad habit, or careless mistake that led you to the wrong answer? At what point in your process did that error occur?

Record an audio message

0:00

0

/

1500