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Source: Official Guide Revised GRE 1st Ed. Part 8; Section 3; #25

8

Because they had expected the spacecraft Voyager 2

Because they had expected the spacecraft Voyager 2 to be able to gather data only about the planets Jupiter and Saturn, scientists were the wealth of information it sent back from Neptune twelve years after leaving Earth. anxious for, confident in, thrilled abou,t keen on, elated by, eager for

2 Explanations

1

ali ABDEEN

why eager doesn't work !

Nov 25, 2019 • Comment

Adam

Hello Ali,
"Eager" relates to the future, looking forward to something. The text uses the past tense "sent," though, meaning that scientists already have the information from Voyager 2. So the information was sent in the past tense. That's why we don't want to use "eager," which relates to the future, not the past.
Hope that helps!

Dec 1, 2019 • Reply

1

Hugo Zhang

Since there is no video explanation from Chris on this question, I will try to explain this question and I will be really gald if I help figure out anyone's confusion. First to rewrite the question:
Because they had expected the spacecraft Voyager 2 to be able to gather data only about the planets Jpiter and Satrun, scientists were ______ the wealth of information it sent back from Neptune twelve years after leaving earth.

I think the clue is the first part of the sentence: Because they had expected the spacecraft Voyager 2 to be able to gather data only about the planets Jpiter and Satrun. This means this spacecraft was initially designed for gathering data only from two planets, but actually it did better than what scientists had expected. It received a wealth of information sent back from Neptune. So what's your response if you get 330 on your GRE, in which case you just reckon you may only get 323? You'll absolutely be "happy and surprise".
So we come up with our own words for the blank, which is " happy and surprise". If we look at the answer choices, (C) and (D) provide similar meaning to our own words. So the answers are (C) and (D).

Aug 17, 2016 • Comment

Sam Kinsman

That's almost right, Hugo! You're thinking along the right lines here. Choice (C), "thrilled about" is correct. However, the best match for (C) is choice (E), which is "elated by." Both "thrilled by" and "elated by" mean that someone is extremely happy about something. However, while "keen on" (choice D) also refers to liking something, it doesn't mean being extremely happy. So the right answers are C and E.

Aug 19, 2016 • Reply

Hugo Zhang

Oops! I've typed a wrong answer choice. I thought choice (D) was "elated by". Thanks for correcting my mistakes! : )

Aug 19, 2016 • Reply

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

On Sam's behalf, you're very welcome :)

Aug 29, 2016 • Reply

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