Aniko

Use context clues to predict the missing word

Lesson progressPractice problems 0/8
Difficulty
Beginner
Estimated time
30 minutes

What you’ll learn

  1. Recognize a words in context question and say what it really asks.
  2. Find the clue in the text that shows what the blank must mean.
  3. Read the clue's direction from its signal: same way, cause and effect, or opposite.
  4. Flip your prediction for a “not”, and follow the turn when the whole text is the clue.
  5. Predict the blank in your own plain words before you read the choices.
  6. Cross out choices from the words you know, then check the last one against the text.

Prerequisites

You’re ready. No earlier lesson is needed.

Why this matters on the SAT

The text tells you what the blank means

A words in context question gives you a short text with one word or phrase missing and four choices that could fill the gap. It's the most common question in the Craft and Structure domain, about half of it. It looks like a vocabulary test, but it's really asking one thing: what does the text say the blank must mean?

Solution to the example

Clue: the colon after the blank. The evidence is mainly one ambiguous diary entry that describes no exchange, and the historian warns not to overstate the link.

Predict: weak, thin.

Cross out: abundant (C) and unquestionable (D) point the opposite way.

Check: tenuous means very weak or slight, which is all one vague entry can give, so the answer is A.

B tempts most: controversial is negative too, and a warning sounds like a dispute, but no one in the text disagrees.

SAT example

In a lecture on early trade routes, a historian cautioned students not to overstate the link between two port cities. The evidence for direct commerce is _____: it consists mainly of one ambiguous diary entry that lists both cities but describes no exchange between them.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

  1. A

    tenuous

  2. B

    controversial

  3. C

    abundant

  4. D

    unquestionable

Find the clue, then predict the word

Every blank comes with a context clue: words in the text that show what the blank must mean. The most common clue restates the blank: it often sits right after the blank, past a colon, a dash or a semicolon, and says the same thing in other words. So read the whole text first, find the clue, and predict the blank in your own plain words before you look at the choices. In the examples, the clue is underlined and the word in the blank is bold.

Note: Clue
The lighthouse keeper was _____: in thirty years, he never missed a night.
Note: Predict
reliable, always there
Correct
The lighthouse keeper was dependable: in thirty years, he never missed a night.
Wrong: Outside knowledge
The lighthouse keeper was lonely: in thirty years, he never missed a night.

Your prediction can be rough: always there does the job as well as dependable, because all it has to do is give you something to match. The wrong version shows the first trap. A keeper may well be lonely, but the clue is about never missing a night, so lonely answers a question the text didn't ask. The answer comes from the clue, not from what you know about the topic.

The clue can also be a list of examples, or a sentence after a semicolon:

Correct: Examples
The keeper's log was detailed: it noted the hour each ship passed, the height of the waves and every repair to the lamp.
Correct: Semicolon
The keeper's work was solitary; he spent most nights alone with the light.

When the clue is a list, ask what every item has in common. An hour, a wave height and a repair are all small, exact facts, so the log is detailed. “That is” and “in other words” work like a colon, and “and” or “also” links the blank to a word that means about the same: in patient and _____, the blank leans toward calm.

Try it on this question: find the clue first, and predict the word before you read the choices.

Practice problems

Lewis and Clark

Practice problem

After the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory in 1803, much of the land remained unfamiliar to federal officials. President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark west to _____ the region: the expedition recorded waterways, described plants and animals, and created maps of its route. Their reports gave officials valuable information about the nation's new territory.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

A signal sets the clue's direction

A clue tells you what the blank is about. A small word or mark, the signal, tells you which way it points: the blank goes the same way as the clue, the opposite way, or follows from it as cause and effect. In these three versions, only the signal changes, so it's bold.

Note: Same way
The report ran only two pages, and its findings were _____. → limited
Note: Opposite
The report ran only two pages, but its findings were _____. → far-reaching
Note: Cause and effect
The report ran only two pages because its data were _____. → scarce

With “and”, the findings match the short report. With “but”, they turn against it: short, yet far-reaching. With “because”, the blank gives the reason the report was short. One clue, three signals, three different words. So find the signal before you predict.

DirectionCommon signalsWhat the blank does
Same waya colon, a dash or a semicolon; “that is”; “and”; “also”; “for example”restates the clue or names what its examples share
Cause and effect“because”; “since”; “so”; “so … that”; “as a result”; “therefore”is the result of the clue, or the reason for it
Opposite“but”; “yet”; “however”; “although”; “while”; “despite”; “rather than”; “instead of”; “unlike”turns against the clue
Check your understanding:

Which direction, and what would you predict? The trail looked gentle on the map, yet the climb was _____.

Cause and effect: the blank is a result or a reason

With “because”, “so”, “as a result” or “therefore”, one part of the text makes the other happen. So the blank is what the cause would lead to, or the cause that would explain the result. Ask: what does this cause produce?

Correct
Because the old bridge had rusted through, inspectors declared it unsafe.
Correct
The storm washed out the only road, so the village was cut off for a week.
Correct: “So … that”
The bridge was so narrow that two cars couldn't pass on it.
Wrong: Not a result
Because the old bridge had rusted through, inspectors declared it historic.

In so _____ that, the part after “that” is the result, so the blank names its cause. The wrong version shows the trap: an old bridge may well be historic, but rust doesn't make it so. A cause clue asks what follows from it, not what else might be true.

“Therefore”, “then” and “as a result” often come in a text's last sentence. There they mark a conclusion, so the blank sums up what the sentences before it showed.

In this question, find the cause and ask what it would produce.

Practice problems

A damaged manuscript

Practice problem

Because the surviving manuscript is riddled with gaps and smudges, the translator’s version is necessarily _____; she proposes words that might have been there, basing them on nearby phrases, but she cannot verify them.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

A contrast turns the blank against the clue

“But”, “yet”, “however”, “although” and “rather than” set the blank against the clue, so predict the opposite of the clue.

Correct
Although the first draft was rough, the final speech was polished.
Correct
The first draft was rough rather than polished.
Correct: “Not simply … but”
The final speech did not simply repeat the draft but reworked it.
Wrong: Same direction
Although the first draft was careful, the final speech was polished.

In the wrong version, careful and polished point the same way, so “although” has nothing to turn against. In “not simply … but”, the first idea isn't enough and the second is the point, so the blank fits the second.

A contrast often swaps the charge, a word's positive or negative feel. Polished is positive, so the blank after “although” is negative. When you can't predict a word, predict the charge: it still cuts the choices with the other charge, and usually the neutral ones too.

Two short phrases hide a direction. For all can mean despite: For all its fame, the café was half empty is a contrast. All but means almost: the crowd had all but gone says nearly everyone had left.

This question turns on a contrast, so if no word comes to mind, predict the charge.

Practice problems

A first prototype

Practice problem

Although the team's initial prototype was _____, it demonstrated a clear path forward and persuaded investors to fund further development.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

A “not” flips the word you need

A negation next to the blank, such as “not”, “never”, “hardly”, “less”, “fails to” or “without”, turns the word you need around. So get the idea from the clue, then flip it: the blank is what the subject is not, or doesn't do.

Note: Clue
The new bridge was hardly _____: traffic backed up across it within a week.
Note: Predict
too small, so hardly big enough
Correct
The new bridge was hardly adequate: traffic backed up across it within a week.
Wrong: Not flipped
The new bridge was hardly crowded: traffic backed up across it within a week.

The clue says the bridge was too small. Hardly means not, so the blank is what the bridge was not: big enough. The idea is negative, but the word in the blank, adequate, is positive. Crowded matches the traffic jam and forgets the flip: hardly crowded says the bridge was nearly empty. The idea stays the same; only the word you need turns around.

Less works the same way: a less harmful spray is a good thing said with a negative word.

The blank in this question follows a negation: get the idea from the clue, then flip it.

Practice problems

A new editor

Practice problem

Although the magazine had a reputation for publishing only established writers, the new editor did not consider that policy _____: within months, debut authors appeared on the cover.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

When the whole text is the clue, follow the turn

In harder questions, nothing next to the blank says what it means. At most, a “then” or “therefore” marks the blank as a conclusion, without saying which part of the text it agrees with. The text tells a short story instead: a common view or a first result, then a finding that turns from it, then a sentence that sums up. Phrases like often assume, many believe or at first set up the view; “but”, “however” or “yet” bring the turn.

Then find which side of the turn the blank is on. After the turn, it agrees with the finding. In the first view, it describes that view, so it's set against the finding, as with any contrast.

Note: First view
Many visitors assume the cave's paintings have faded with age.
Note: The turn
But chemical tests show the pigments have barely changed in centuries.
Correct
The paintings, it turns out, are remarkably well preserved.
Wrong: First view
The paintings, it turns out, are remarkably faded.
Correct: Blank in the view
Many visitors assume the paintings are faded, but chemical tests show the pigments have barely changed.

In the wrong version, faded repeats what visitors assume, the view the text sets up only to turn away from. In the last version, the blank sits inside that view, so the same word is right there. When the blank comes after the turn, the wrong choice often repeats the view the text turns from.

A finding can also keep part of the first view and cut the rest back: a later test confirms a result for some cases but not for others. Then the blank has to say both, kept in part and limited in part, so a word that only agrees or only rejects is wrong.

Check your understanding:

Which part of the text does the blank agree with? Early reviews called the novel slow. Readers who finished it, however, found the last chapters gripping, and sales climbed for a year. The book’s reception, then, grew steadily more _____.

Cross out from what you know, then check

With a prediction in hand, go through the choices and cross out each one that doesn't match it. Work from the words you know. A word you don't know stays until something rules it out, and a harder-looking word is no more likely to be right. Here's the opening question again, with a prediction of weak or thin. The first pass crosses out what points the wrong way; controversial survives it because it's negative too:

Note: Predict
weak, thin
Note: Cross out
tenuous, controversial, abundant, unquestionable
Note: Check
controversial: it means disputed, but the text shows thin evidence, not a dispute

Then check the choice that's left: put it in the blank, reread the text, and ask: does the text show exactly this? The right direction isn't enough. A choice can match the charge and still say something the text doesn't, as controversial does, or say too much, like a study that disproves a claim it only limits.

Two more things can make a choice hard to judge. A plain word can carry a second meaning: check can mean hold back, as in check a fire's spread, so don't cross out a common word just because its everyday meaning doesn't fit. And a word you've never seen can sometimes be worked out from its parts. Both get lessons of their own later in the course, along with the vocabulary the SAT uses most.

That makes one routine for every words in context question, the one the worked examples and the mixed practice problems follow:

  1. Find the clue: read the whole text and find the words that show what the blank means.
  2. Read the signal: same way, cause and effect, or opposite; flip for a negation; when the whole text is the clue, follow the turn.
  3. Predict the blank in your own plain words, or at least its charge.
  4. Cross out the choices that don't match, working from the words you know.
  5. Check the choice that's left: does the text show exactly this?

Example: a “not” with its clue after the blank

In this question, the blank comes right after a negation, and the clue that decides it comes right after the blank, while an aside before the blank tempts you toward the wrong word.

Worked example

During laboratory tests, an acoustic sensor registered a narrow frequency spike whenever a turbine blade contained a hairline crack. In outdoor trials, however, the same spike appeared on intact blades during strong crosswinds. This finding does not show that the spike is useless—it may still occur with nearly every cracked blade—but it does show that the spike is not a _____ indicator of cracking, because it also occurs when no crack is present.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

  1. A

    specific

  2. B

    sensitive

  3. C

    quantitative

  4. D

    persistent

Step 1

Find the negation and the clue

The blank comes right after but it does show that the spike is not a, so a negation is in play: before you predict, find what the spike fails to be. The text says why right after the blank: because it also occurs when no crack is present. The second sentence, after “however”, showed the same thing: the same spike appeared on intact blades during strong crosswinds.

Step 2

Get the idea, then flip it

Get the idea from the clue: the spike also shows up with no crack, so it goes off for other things too. Now flip it: the blank is what the spike is not, an indicator that goes off only when there's a crack. Predict only for cracks.

The sentence runs does not show … but it does show, so it rules out one idea, that the spike is useless, and keeps the narrower point the blank makes. The aside between the dashes says what the spike still does: it may still occur with nearly every cracked blade. The text grants that, so the blank isn't about catching cracks. It's about catching only cracks.

Step 3

Cross out what doesn’t match

Quantitative means measured in amounts, and persistent means lasting. Neither has anything to do with showing up when no crack is there, so C and D go.

Sensitive tempts most. It sounds like the right word for a detector, and it fits a vague sense that the spike falls short. But sensitive means quick to respond, and the aside says the spike does respond to cracks: it occurs with nearly every cracked blade. Calling it not sensitive contradicts the text, so B goes too.

Step 4

Check the last choice

Specific means limited to one particular thing, so a specific indicator points to one cause and no other. Crosswinds set the spike off too, so it isn't one. The text shows exactly this. The answer is A.

Correct
The spike is not a specific indicator of cracking, because it also occurs when no crack is present.

Example: a finding that turns the first view around

In this question, nothing next to the blank says what it means: “then” only marks a conclusion. The direction comes from the shape of the whole text: a view, a finding that turns from it, and a conclusion.

Worked example

Researchers often assume that pushing athletes to their physiological limit yields superior endurance gains. But a meta-analysis of randomized trials found that, after controlling for age and baseline fitness, participants assigned to high-intensity training improved their endurance to the same extent as those assigned to otherwise identical moderate-intensity training. For these participants, then, workout intensity appears _____ the gains observed.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

  1. A

    instrumental in

  2. B

    correlated with

  3. C

    immaterial to

  4. D

    commensurate with

Step 1

Find the view and the turn

The first sentence sets up a common view: Researchers often assume that pushing athletes to their physiological limit yields superior endurance gains. Often assume is a setup, a view the text is about to test. Then But a meta-analysis of randomized trials found brings the turn, so the blank has to agree with the finding, not with the view.

Step 2

Read the finding

The high-intensity group improved their endurance to the same extent as the moderate-intensity group. Everything else was held equal: the study controlled for age and fitness, and the training was otherwise identical. So the one difference, intensity, changed nothing about the gains.

Step 3

Predict, then cross out

For these participants, then, opens the conclusion. “Then” is a cause-and-effect signal here: the blank states what follows from the finding. Predict made no difference to.

Instrumental in means important in bringing something about. It tempts most, because it repeats the first sentence, but that's the view the text turns from, so A goes. Correlated with means changing together, and equal gains at both intensities show no such link, so B goes. Commensurate with means in proportion to: harder training, bigger gains. It sounds advanced, but it contradicts the finding, so D goes.

Step 4

Check the last choice

Immaterial to means unimportant to, making no difference to. Equal gains under otherwise identical training show exactly that. The answer is C.

Correct
For these participants, then, workout intensity appears immaterial to the gains observed.

Practice problems

These questions mix the clue types, so on each one, start by finding which clue the text gives and which way it points.

A delayed transit project

Practice problem

At the town hall, the mayor’s remarks about the delayed transit project were carefully _____: while sounding optimistic, they avoided any firm timeline or budget commitments.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

Fourteen small edits

Practice problem

When literary scholar Mina Okafor compared the first and second editions of a novel, she found only fourteen changes, most involving a single adjective or adverb. Yet these small edits repeatedly made the narrator’s assurances sound evasive rather than sincere, reshaping how readers understand later events. The revisions were therefore _____: limited in scale but significant in effect.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

Four drafts of a play

Practice problem

By aligning four surviving drafts of a play, manuscript scholar Leila Adu observes that a metaphor discarded from the second draft reappears, substantially altered, in the fourth, while the final scene develops an exchange first sketched in the margin of the earliest manuscript. Because later decisions do not simply supersede earlier ones but draw on possibilities the playwright had apparently abandoned, Adu characterizes the drafting process as _____.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

Scheduling data-center jobs

Practice problem

Initial tests of a data-center scheduling program found lower electricity use across a benchmark containing both urgent and nonurgent jobs, leading researchers to describe the program as broadly effective. A later study reproduced the overall reduction when it used the same mixture of jobs. When the later researchers tested urgent and nonurgent jobs separately, however, nearly all the savings appeared in nonurgent jobs that could be shifted to cooler hours; jobs requiring immediate processing showed little benefit. The later study therefore _____ the initial conclusion.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer choices

Finish the lesson

8 practice examples left

Finish the remaining questions correctly to complete this lesson.

Quick recap

  • Find the clue before the choices: a colon, dash or semicolon by the blank usually restates it.
  • Read the signal: same way, cause and effect, or opposite; a “not” flips the word you need.
  • When the whole text is the clue, find which side of the turn the blank is on: after the turn, it agrees with the finding.
  • Work from the words you know: keep a word you don't know until something rules it out.
  • Every question: find the clue and its signal, predict in plain words, cross out, then check that the text shows exactly that.

Related

To build the vocabulary these questions use, study the SAT vocabulary words and take the free quiz.

Next lesson

Precise words: when more than one choice seems to fit

Pick the exact word when several choices point the right way.

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