A word in context question tests whether you can use the passage to find a missing word’s meaning. Read the whole text and find the clue and its direction. A contrast word sets two ideas against each other, so ask which side the blank describes. Then predict the meaning in plain words and test each choice by its definition. Words that suit the topic can still fail to describe what the passage actually says.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look for the two views joined by the opening word. Which view contains the blank?
- Hint 2
What does it mean for the early stories to have “laid the groundwork” for the later techniques? Use that clue to make your own prediction for the blank.
Step-by-step
Follow the contrast
Step 1Find the two views
While some critics dismiss introduces one view, and her later novels reveal brings in a different view. Which side contains the blank? It belongs to the critics’ judgment of the early stories, so the missing word must fit their dismissive view, even though the rest of the sentence shows the stories had value.
- Step 2
Predict from the groundwork
What did the later novels show that the critics missed? Those early stories laid the groundwork for her signature narrative techniques, meaning they provided a starting point for techniques used in the later novels. The pieces were experiments early in her career, so let’s predict basic first attempts, not fully developed work. The contrast gives those beginnings value without saying they were already finished achievements.
- Step 3
Test the word meanings
Meticulous means very careful and precise, and provocative means likely to stir a strong reaction. The passage gives no clue about careful detail or readers’ reactions. What about redundant, meaning unnecessary because it repeats what’s already there? The words laid the groundwork describe a starting point for later techniques, not evidence that the stories repeated anything.
- Step 4
Check the word in the sentence
Rudimentary means basic and not fully developed. It fits the critics’ decision to dismiss the early short stories as experiments because they’re judging work at an early stage of the author’s development. That meaning allows the experiments to be limited yet useful as a foundation. Choice D.