Skip to Main Content
This is a free sample lesson. Sign up for Magoosh to get access to over 200 video lessons.

Intro to Double Blank Sentences

Transcript

Okay, welcome to the module on two blank text completions. In this video, we're gonna learn about the basic strategies. These strategies are very important but what's just as important are those strategies we learned for one blank text completions. But why? Because they apply, they apply in many cases to the way that we're going to tackle to blank text completions.

So very first thing is to read the entire sentence started here with Trent. Trent was able to combine blank with blank and a heated debate. He would always tactfully hear his opponent side, before exposing the logical flaws of that position. So we want to identify what sort of question this is. Going back to one text completions.

This is a type of text completion where you're defining what these blanks are. And so therefore, we have to know what comes after the blank. So we know because we have read the entire sentence. We've identified now the sentence type. It's simply defining these two blanks. There's no shift going on.

And what did we do with one blank text completions? We looked for the keywords, for the clues. In heated debate, well, this person would always tactfully, tactfully hear his opponent's side, so a good thing to remember is to try to deal with one blank at a time. It's a very good strategy because if you try to put too much on your plate find the clues for both of these try to come up with your words for both blanks.

It's gonna be a lot more difficult than doing one blank at a time. So Trent was able to combine blank, well, he tactfully listened to his opponent side to be tactful is to be sensitive in a social setting. And so what word here means I am going to be sensitive to you and polite? Well, hesitation? No, hostility?

Definitely not, if one exercises civility, on the other hand, that person is being kind in a social context, they're being tactful. And there's our answer for the first blank, now, you will notice that to do blank text completion is different. Why? Because there are three answer choices versus five.

And three answer choices for the second blank are different than those for the first blank. So we have gotten the word civility for the first blank and now we can move on to the second blank. Well, we now know from reading this entire sentence from the beginning that there's more to come.

That more will refer to the second blank. It says before exposing the logical flaws of that position. So that's great. Trent was a very good debater. He would listen to the other side, but then show how the other side was wrong. So what did he have here? Well, he combined blankness civility with an ability to reason and argue.

And so, that's might gonna be my word, word that I can come up with here and match to the answer choice. Again, you don't need to come up with an exact word but a phrase and so this person is good at debating so they have intelligence, sure, sarcasm? No, that's very negative doesn't go with the tone of the sentence. Definitely cowardice doesn't work.

He's good at debating, and so he's able to combine civility with intelligence. Now, the final thing here to know, these are the two answers, but in order to receive full credit, you have to answer both of these correctly. You can't answer civility and then sarcasm and hope for half a point. Okay, we're gonna try another two blank text completion and in this case, well, let's do what we did last time, we started off with reading the entire sentence.

In stark contrast to his later blank, Madison mostly blank merriment during his college years, despite the fact that his school had a reputation for revelry, so we wanna do what? We want to identify the sentence type, we wanna look for shifters, in stark contrast. So we know that this first blank now is opposite to this heck of blank so in stark contrast to his later fun guy this again, make it my own words here, and Madison mostly avoided merriment or in stark contrast to his later crazy goodness.

Madison mostly, or actually crazy guy and fun guy is the same things. I take that back in stark contrast to it. Not such a fun guy. Madison mostly invited merriment. So the point is these two blanks are opposite. That's great.

We know the relationship between these two blanks. But how do you know which one is which? That is is this the fun guy one or is he having fun during his college years? That's what we always have to remember what the rest of the sentence says. So despite the fact that his school had a reputation for revelry, so now you can see that there's another contrast going on here.

So it's sort of a double contrast when you identify the sentence type, and you'll see that there is more complexity into like text completion simply because there's typically more words and there are two blanks. Once we get the three blank text completions it's even gonna be more complex but here we have that double contrast going on. And we can start from the end here where it says despite the fact his school had reputation for revelry or fun.

So even though everyone was having fun at college, Madison, avoid it. In stark contrast to his later fun guy, this partying guy. He mostly avoided merriment. So we're dealing, notice we're still dealing with one blank at a time. I was able to come up with the word for the second blank first. And again, we need a synonym for avoid and stuffing not took part in.

Think of wallow, you wallow in your misery, you wallow in your grief, you get deeply involved in something that doesn't really work because we're going for the opposite you're avoiding it all together and that's what the word abstain means. And now again we can come up or we can deal with the first blank, the importance here being, you do not need to deal with the first blank, always first.

So again, we're more or less come up here with our look for keywords and we come up with our own words. And now we're matching so in stark contrast to his later so we need a word that means he's having a fun time. He's the party guy. What word is that?

So a lot of people will be drawn to this and then something will have to realize to two blank text completion. Sometimes word can kind of work and that's very similar to the one blank text completion kind of work doesn't really count that if somebody is amiable, they are friendly. Does that mean they are party?

No, not by definition, they may party, they may not party. Conservatism obviously is the opposite of what we are going for here. And therefore, the word carousing must mean to party, which it does. If one is carousing, they're having a great time, engaging in merriment and revelry. And there are our two answers in this case.

So again, two blanks, a little bit more complicated. Make sure you read the entire sentence, identify the sentence typed away. Learned with one blank text completion. And of course follow the same basic strategies. And that should always help you get to the answer.

Read full transcript