Question 52·Easy·Words in Context
Residents of Hillcrest converted an abandoned parking lot into a community garden overflowing with vegetables and flowers. The project has ______ the neighborhood, making the area cleaner and more welcoming.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
For SAT Words in Context questions, first read the entire sentence (and surrounding sentence if given) to understand the situation and the tone: is the outcome positive, negative, or neutral? Then focus on the words or phrases that explain or restate the blank (here, “making the area cleaner and more welcoming”). Use those as your main clues, and quickly test each option by plugging it into the sentence. Eliminate any choices whose meanings or connotations contradict the clues, even if they are grammatically correct, and select the word that best matches both the meaning and the tone of the context.
Hints
Look at the whole scene first
Focus on how the parking lot has changed: it went from “abandoned” to a garden “overflowing with vegetables and flowers.” What kind of effect is that likely to have on the neighborhood?
Use the phrase after the blank
The clause after the comma — “making the area cleaner and more welcoming” — explains the result of the project. Think about whether the missing word should be positive, negative, or neutral based on that description.
Test the tone of each choice
Try each option in the sentence and ask: Does this word describe improving the neighborhood so that it becomes “cleaner and more welcoming,” or does it describe something else (like ignoring, stopping, or merely receiving)?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the situation described
Read the full context: residents converted an abandoned parking lot into a community garden overflowing with vegetables and flowers. This clearly describes a positive change and improvement in how the space is used.
Use the clause after the comma as a clue
The second sentence says: “The project has ______ the neighborhood, making the area cleaner and more welcoming.” The phrase “making the area cleaner and more welcoming” explains the result of the blank. So the missing word must mean improved the neighborhood in a positive way.
Check each choice against the context and tone
Now test each option in the sentence:
- Neglected the neighborhood: this would mean ignored or failed to care for it, which is the opposite of what a successful garden project would do.
- Interrupted the neighborhood: this suggests stopping or breaking up something, which does not match the idea of making it “cleaner and more welcoming.”
- Inherited the neighborhood: means receiving something from someone else; the residents did not receive the neighborhood, they changed it. Only one option should express the idea of bringing positive change and new energy to the neighborhood.
Choose the word that matches “cleaner and more welcoming”
The only option that logically and precisely describes making a formerly abandoned area better, more attractive, and full of new life is “revitalized”. So the correct answer is D) revitalized.