A word in context question tests whether you can work out a missing word’s meaning from the passage. Read the whole text and find the clue that explains the blank, then use linking words to see whether ideas agree, contrast, or show cause and effect. For an inference, a conclusion drawn from evidence, ask what the text says about the conclusion and its evidence. Predict in plain words, then test each word’s exact meaning. A word can sound right while saying something the text never shows.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the explanation after the blank. What does it tell you about Velez’s inference?
- Hint 2
Compare the claim about national opinion with the pattern within the archive. What is each one about?
- Hint 3
Describe how far the inference reaches and how firmly Velez supports it. How do those descriptions work together?
Step-by-step
Separate reach from confidence
Step 1Predict from the explanation
The words after the blank, one confined to the commercial groups represented, explain the inference Velez thinks the letters support. How far does that inference reach? It stays with the merchants whose letters are in the archive, rather than speaking for the country’s response to the treaty. Before looking at the choices, predict limited in reach.
- Step 2
Check how certain the finding is
Does that limit mean Velez is unsure of what the merchants thought? She nevertheless regards one pattern within the archive as firmly established, turning from a claim she rejects to a finding she supports. The archive excludes farmers and inland traders, but the merchants repeatedly name the same chief concern. The finding is firm even though the claim is narrow, so our prediction shouldn’t make the merchants’ concern doubtful.
- Step 3
Test the other meanings
Which words name something other than that limit? Preliminary means early or not yet final, but Velez doesn’t say the inference needs more work before it is final. Conditional means depending on a requirement being met; one confined to the commercial groups represented names who the claim covers, not a requirement to meet. Indeterminate means not settled or not definite, which conflicts with firmly established.
- Step 4
Match the reach of the claim
Modest means limited rather than broad. Does that meaning fit one confined to the commercial groups represented? It describes how far Velez’s claim reaches without suggesting that she doubts the merchants’ repeated concern, so it completes the sentence precisely. Choice D.