Question 20·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
In her keynote, environmental advocate Lina Ortiz argued that small, repeated design tweaks can ______ a sprawling city's energy demand, not by forcing residents to change their habits, but by making the efficient choice the default.
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 the sentence: decide whether the blank needs a positive or negative word, and whether it should suggest increasing, decreasing, approving, spreading, etc. Next, eliminate any options whose basic meanings or connotations clearly don’t match that idea. Only then compare the remaining choices to see which one best fits the sentence when you plug it in. This “context first, choices second” approach is faster and prevents you from being tricked by familiar but wrong words.
Hints
Use the whole sentence, not just the blank
Read the entire sentence, especially the part after the comma (“not by forcing residents… but by making the efficient choice the default”). Ask yourself what overall effect these design tweaks have on the city’s energy demand.
Think about direction and tone
Is the environmental advocate describing energy demand as becoming bigger or smaller? Is the outcome described as a problem getting worse, or as an improvement?
Check the connotations of the choices
Look at each option and ask: does this word usually go with positive environmental change or with approval, spreading, or making problems worse?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the basic idea of the sentence
First, restate the sentence in your own words.
The speaker says that small, repeated design changes in a city can affect its energy demand. These changes do this not by forcing people to change what they do, but by making the efficient choice the default. That sounds like a positive, efficiency-boosting outcome — using less energy overall.
Decide what should happen to energy demand
Focus on the phrase “a sprawling city's energy demand” and the explanation that follows: “not by forcing residents to change their habits, but by making the efficient choice the default.”
If the city makes the efficient choice the default, people will naturally use less energy without extra effort. So the blank must describe energy demand moving in a good direction for the environment — that is, going down, not up.
Eliminate choices that don’t match that idea
Now look at the answer choices and think about their meanings:
- ratify: to formally approve or confirm something (like a law or treaty).
- disseminate: to spread or distribute something widely (like information or ideas).
- exacerbate: to make a problem or situation worse or more severe.
None of these describe reducing or lowering energy demand:
- “ratify” is about approval, not about changing an amount.
- “disseminate” is about spreading something, which doesn’t fit “energy demand.”
- “exacerbate” would mean making the energy problem worse, the opposite of what an environmental advocate would argue.
So A, C, and D do not fit the meaning needed in the blank.
Confirm the remaining choice
The only remaining option is “attenuate.” “Attenuate” means to reduce, lessen, or weaken something.
In the sentence, that gives:
“small, repeated design tweaks can attenuate a sprawling city's energy demand, not by forcing residents to change their habits, but by making the efficient choice the default.”
This fits perfectly: the tweaks gradually reduce the city's energy demand in a positive, environmentally friendly way. So the correct answer is B) attenuate.