Question 24·Hard·Words in Context
By juxtaposing Indigenous oral histories with colonial administrative records, the historian hopes to _____ a narrative that honors both personal memory and empirical evidence.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
For SAT Words-in-Context questions, always start by rereading the sentence carefully and restating in your own words what must go in the blank (for example, "here the author wants a verb that means ‘build a narrative from two sources’"). Then, without looking at the choices, think of a simple placeholder word that fits your restatement. Next, test each answer choice by plugging it into the sentence, eliminating any that clash with the sentence’s meaning, tone, or common usage (e.g., whether it naturally fits with the surrounding words like "a narrative"). Finally, choose the option whose meaning and tone most closely match your placeholder word and the sentence context, even if it is a more advanced vocabulary term.
Hints
Focus on the historian’s goal
Look at the phrase starting with "By juxtaposing..." and ending with "honors both personal memory and empirical evidence." What is the historian trying to do with these two different kinds of sources?
Check the tone and purpose
Does the sentence sound like the historian wants to attack, hide, shorten, or construct something? Think about how a historian usually works with multiple sources.
Test which verbs fit with "a narrative"
Insert each answer choice into the sentence and see which one makes the most natural sense with the object "a narrative" and the positive idea of honoring both types of evidence.
Step-by-step Explanation
Use the context around the blank
Read the full sentence:
"By juxtaposing Indigenous oral histories with colonial administrative records, the historian hopes to _____ a narrative that honors both personal memory and empirical evidence."
Key clues:
- "By juxtaposing...with..." means putting two different kinds of sources side by side.
- "honors both" shows the historian wants to respect both kinds of sources in the narrative.
So the historian’s goal is to create some kind of narrative that makes good use of both types of evidence.
Think of a general meaning that fits
Before looking closely at the choices, plug in a simple word that would work: something like "create," "build," or "form" a narrative from these two types of records.
Whatever the correct answer is, it should be a verb that fits the idea of constructing or forming a narrative using both Indigenous oral histories and colonial administrative records.
Test each answer choice against the sentence
Now check each option in the blank and ask if it matches the historian’s constructive goal:
- A) "hopes to divulge a narrative" – does that match using both sources to build something new?
- B) "hopes to repudiate a narrative" – would that honor both types of evidence?
- C) "hopes to [correct answer] a narrative" – does this fit the idea of forming a unified account?
- D) "hopes to truncate a narrative" – would that make sense with "honors both" sources?
Focus on which verb naturally goes with "a narrative" in an academic history context and matches the positive, constructive tone.
Match the best-fitting verb
"Divulge" means to reveal or make known (usually a secret), "repudiate" means to reject or deny the validity of something, and "truncate" means to shorten by cutting off part. None of those describe building a narrative from two sets of sources. In contrast, "synthesize" means to combine different elements into a coherent whole, which perfectly matches using both Indigenous oral histories and colonial records to form a narrative that honors both kinds of evidence. Therefore, the correct answer is C) synthesize.