Official GRE Sentence Equivalence Sample Questions
The format of GRE sentence equivalence questions is unique not just to the GRE, but to standardized tests in general. The reason is that it’s the only major question type that does not have a single correct answer, but two correct answers to it.
In terms of question format, all GRE sentence equivalence questions consist of a single sentence with one blank. You are then asked to select two correct answers from a list of six answer choices. While at first glance these questions may seem relatively straightforward, the level of vocabulary listed in the answer choices can be quite challenging. In addition, no credit is given for partially correct answers, which inevitably makes the problems both inherently more time-consuming and prone to error.
Sentence equivalence is the only major question type that has two correct answers.
In the following solutions, we will review some of the core principles of the Menlo Coaching GRE curriculum to analyze two official GRE sentence equivalence questions and provide you with a set best practice study principles for effectively attacking this unusual GRE Verbal question type in the future.
What Are Sentence Equivalence Questions?
GRE sentence equivalence and text completion questions are the two main GRE Verbal section question types that focus on higher-level English vocabulary knowledge. Although this particular skill set (vocabulary) is not exclusively what these two question types test on, it certainly is a key component to improving one’s score on this section of this exam.
The second major skill set measured by this GRE question type is the ability to correctly identify the two answer choices that best fit the meaning of the original sentence and result in a complete coherent sentence. Successfully developing and harnessing this softer-skill ability is an area where many students tend to struggle.
Last but not least, sentence equivalence questions are different from text completion questions in the sense that you are not just required to pick the word(s) that best fit the meaning of the overall sentence but also select a pair of words that have essentially the same meaning (i.e. synonyms).
The Educational Testing Service asks vocabulary questions where the correct answers are not necessarily equivalent in every context. Test takers must use clues from the SE question to determine the synonym pair.
Sentence equivalence practice is useful for test takers with even the strongest grasp of the English language. To efficiently and correctly complete questions on the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE, it is necessary to develop a sentence equivalence strategy based on your knowledge of what skills these questions are actually measuring.
In summary, students who have a clear and broad understanding of advanced college-level English vocabulary as well as those who focus on developing the ability to correctly identify important yet subtle differences in overall sentence structure and meaning will have the greatest success on GRE sentence equivalence questions.
GRE Sentence Equivalence, Sample Question #1
Manga – illustrated Japanese books that are read from right to left – are beginning to win fans, _______ the enormous success of anime films such as Miyazaki’s breathtaking Spirited Away.
A. bringing about B. buoyed by C. contrasted with D. helped by E. independent of F. leading to
Answer and Explanation
Correct Answer is (B) and (D).
This particular GRE question is one that many past high-scoring test takers have struggled with mightily. As previously mentioned, GRE sentence equivalence questions test students on one of two key skills: vocabulary knowledge and the ability to correctly identify sentence meaning. If you take a quick look at the answer choices here, you’ll notice that the words are all fairly straightforward ones, which means this question should be a piece of cake to solve, right? Well, that depends…
One of the most common cons that GRE question makers play on students involves messing with the student’s ‘perception’ of the implied timeline. The question starts off by stating that Japanese Manga (anime) books are just now beginning to win fans over. Consequently, as we move forward in time, even with a small spillover effect, this should ultimately help other Japanese anime-related art (in this case – films), non? Well, this is absolutely how most students interpret the original sentence, leading many test takers to pick answer choices (A) bringing about; and (F) leading to.
The real question is, is this correct though?
The unfortunate answer is no. No, it is not.
So, what did we miss?
The con the GRE is playing with you here is a subtle but extremely common one. In most cases, the natural and usually quite logical assumption a reader makes when working through a paragraph of text is that the first sentence likely happens before the second, and the second likely happens before the third, et cetera.
Although this is how most of us think, write, and read on a daily basis (in a linear fashion where time moves forward), does this always have to be the case? The short answer is no.
In addition, our highly evolved human brains like to go about simplifying things as much as possible (to make our world easier for us to survive in). It does this by automatically completing initial patterns of thought, image, and behaviour that tend to occur in our day-to-day world (such as A comes before B and B comes before C). In real life, this auto-complete mode your brain generally defaults to almost always pays off positively.
Unfortunately, the GRE is not real life. Once we recognize the GRE likes to trick us by introducing non-linear or inverted timelines, we can begin to train ourselves to notice when we make certain types of generic assumptions (like a forward moving linear timeline).
At this point, it should now become easier to see what’s really going on in this question. If Miyazaki’s anime film Spirited Away has already had enormous success (as is explicitly stated in the original sentence) but anime books are only beginning to win over fans, this must mean that the films preceded the books, not vice-versa.
If this is the case, then the anime films are actually helping the anime (Manga) books to succeed, not the other way round. Since this is the slightly hidden but true meaning of the original sentence, it now becomes clear that the words of best fit here are (B) buoyed by; and (D) helped by. The films have helped the books succeed. Helped and buoyed are synonymous terms and are the two correct answers to this question.
When analyzing GRE sentence equivalence questions, don’t fall into the trap of making (potentially) false assumptions. More specifically, any time you see a GRE question introduce a new timeline, take an extra moment to re-read the sentence to confirm what direction the timeline is truly operating in.
Remember: the original sentence may not always be written in a linear fashion. Training yourself to notice when you’re potentially being set up to be conned and propel your GRE Verbal score to an even higher level.
GRE Sentence Equivalence, Sample Question #2
While in many ways their personalities could not have been more different – she was ebullient where he was glum, relaxed where he was awkward, garrulous where he was _______ – they were surprisingly well suited.
A. solicitious B. munificent C. irresolute D. laconic E. fastidious F. taciturn
Answer and Explanation
Correct Answer is (D) and (F).
This next problem is equally challenging but in a different way. It is a great example of a high-level GRE sentence equivalence question that many students get wrong over and over again. Why though? What is it about this question that makes it so challenging?
Well, the short answer is vocabulary. There is no shortage of challenging English words here, both in the question (i.e. ebullient, glum, garrulous) as well as the answers (i.e. solicitous, munificent, laconic, taciturn, etc.).
Unlike the previous problem, where correctly identifying the overall meaning of the sentence was the key to selecting the right answer(s), this question is much more focused on whether or not you know the correct definitions of a number of challenging GRE vocabulary words.
We have seen it happen on this question time and time again. Even the most proficient of native English speakers tends to be unfamiliar with one or more of words here. Consequently, almost all students have real difficulty in selecting the right answer to this question.
How does one overcome this hurdle? Well, simply put, if you know the correct dictionary definitions of all the words (in both the question and the answer choices), you can solve this problem in less than 15 seconds. If not, you’re likely going to have to resort to guessing, perhaps even completely randomly, which will inevitably result in a significantly lower accuracy rate for this and any other question like it.
Let’s prove it though. Here’s a short list of the dictionary definitions for all the key higher-level words in the original sentence:
– Ebullient: cheerful and full of energy – Glum: looking or feeling dejected – Garrulous: excessively talkative
Based on these definitions, one can clearly see that the author is listing word pairs that have opposite meanings (i.e. relaxed is the opposite of awkward and ebullient is the opposite of glum).
Given this, the correct word for the blank needs to mean the opposite of garrulous. Since the opposite of overly talkative is ‘not very talkative’, this means we’re looking for two words in the answers that both mean ‘not very talkative’.
Once again, to show how straightforward even incredibly high-level sentence equivalence questions can be to solve if you just know what all the words really mean, here’s a list of the dictionary definitions for all six answer choices:
A. Solicitious: characterized by or showing interest or concern B. Munificent: very generous C. Irresolute: showing or feeling hesitancy D. Laconic: using very few words E. Fastidious: very attentive and concerned about accuracy and detail F. Taciturn: reserved or uncommunicative
As you can see from the list above, only two words mean ‘not very talkative’. They are laconic and taciturn, making (D) and (F) the two right answers to this question.
At this point, you’re probably all wondering the same thing. How can you efficiently expand your English vocabulary knowledge to be in a better position to solve highly challenging sentence equivalence questions like this quickly and easily?
At Menlo Coaching, we assist our GRE students in overcoming this troublesome vocabulary hurdle by giving them free access to a comprehensive Menlo GRE Vocabulary database containing more than 1,200 high-level GRE words used on previous real GRE exams.
We also take the extra step to help our students even more by ranking these GRE words by frequency distribution (i.e. how common vs. how rarely they were tested on past exams). This way students with limited study time can be hyper-efficient in their vocabulary self-study by triaging what GRE words they should focus on learning first.
Tip: Although by no means a panacea, one of the best ways to improve your GRE Verbal score is to focus on expanding your active English vocabulary by as many words as you can as quickly and efficiently as you can.
Remember, at Menlo Coaching, we have compiled one of the most comprehensive GRE vocabulary databases in the industry, a key reason that explains why Menlo GRE tutoring students see consistently high GRE Verbal score improvements year over year.
Conclusion
Sentence equivalence questions are only one component of the Verbal Reasoning measure of the GRE. However, understanding this question type before test day is encouraged, especially since no partial credit is awarded for identifying only one of the correct answers. Reading the entire sentence carefully will help you determine the context for the answer choices. Thus, preparing a strategy for solving GRE sentence equivalence questions will help you excel on this section of the GRE.
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