Question 181·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
Some urban planners praise the new riverfront development for 'reconnecting residents with the water.' Yet environmental historian Maya Rios calls that claim ______: the promenade's fencing and retail kiosks actually increase barriers to the shoreline.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
For SAT Words-in-Context questions, always start by ignoring the answer choices and paraphrasing what the blank must mean using the sentence’s clues—especially contrast words (like "yet") and explanations after commas or colons. Decide whether the tone is positive or negative and what role the word plays (for example, describing a claim, an action, or a person), then eliminate choices with the wrong tone or that don’t fit that role. Finally, plug the remaining choice into the sentence to check that it matches both the meaning and the logical flow.
Hints
Notice the transition word
Focus on the word "Yet" at the beginning of the second sentence. How does it show the relationship between the planners’ praise and Rios’s view?
Use the information after the colon
Look closely at what comes after the colon: what do the fencing and retail kiosks do to access to the shoreline, and how does that compare to the idea of "reconnecting residents with the water"?
Think about tone and direction
Is Rios agreeing with the planners’ positive description or challenging it? The word in the blank should match her attitude toward that claim and the way she is pushing back against it.
Step-by-step Explanation
Use the contrast signal word
The word "Yet" at the start of the second sentence signals a contrast between what the urban planners say and what Maya Rios believes. The planners praise the development, but Rios disagrees with their positive view.
Read the explanation after the colon
After the blank, the sentence explains why Rios objects: "the promenade's fencing and retail kiosks actually increase barriers to the shoreline." This shows that, in her view, the development does not reconnect residents with the water; it does the opposite.
Infer what kind of word is needed
Because Rios thinks the claim about "reconnecting residents" is contradicted by the reality of more barriers, she believes the claim is not just unhelpful but incorrect or misleading. The blank must be filled with a negative word that describes a claim that sounds good but is actually wrong.
Match the best word to the idea
Among the choices, "specious" is the word that describes something, especially an argument or claim, that appears true or plausible but is actually false or deceptive. This fits Rios’s criticism that the supposed "reconnection" is contradicted by the increased barriers, so the correct answer is specious.