A words in context question tests whether you can find a missing word’s meaning from nearby clues. Read the whole text and find the details that explain the blank. A phrase that means not tells you the blank names what the person or thing is not, so ask which way the clue points. Predict in plain words, then put that meaning into the full sentence. A word may describe the details well yet make the sentence say the opposite.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read after the colon for how the researcher responded. What do her three responses have in common?
- Hint 2
What does anything but mean? Decide whether the blank names a quality she showed or one she didn’t.
- Hint 3
Reread the full phrase with your predicted meaning in place. Does it agree with the explanations and records she provided?
Step-by-step
Find the clue and flip the prediction
Step 1Use the examples
The colon gives us the clue for the missing word: she identified each conflicting entry and supplied the original field notes for comparison. What do these examples show about how she responded? She explained the revisions and gave people a way to check them, so she answered openly and directly.
- Step 2
Turn the prediction around
Does the blank name how she behaved, or what she wasn’t? The researcher was anything but ______, which means she was not at all whatever the blank names. We need to flip the prediction from open and direct to avoiding a direct answer. A word for openness would say she wasn’t open, which goes against the examples; a word for avoiding answers would say she wasn’t avoiding them.
- Step 3
Cross out by meaning
Calling her not at all systematic, or organized, doesn’t fit with how she identified each conflicting entry. Skeptical means doubtful, and conciliatory means trying to calm a disagreement. What do these words miss? None means avoiding a direct answer, which is what our prediction calls for.
- Step 4
Check the full phrase
Evasive means avoiding a direct answer or holding back information. Put it after was anything but ______: she was not avoiding an answer at all. That fits because she explained the changes and gave the original records for anyone to check. Choice B.