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Our SAT sentence completion practice tests will help you prepare for this portion of your SAT. They will test your vocabulary as well as your reading comprehension.
Directions: Each sentence completion question has either one or two blanks where words have been omitted Below each question there are five words or sets of words labled A through E. You need to choose the word or words that best fits the meaning of the entire sentence. These SAT sentence completions will test your vocabulary as well as your reading comprehension.
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Question 1 |
The ------- 13 year old still believed whatever he was told, despite having fallen for many stories and jokes.
educated | |
gullible | |
reassured | |
pusillanimous | |
cynical |
Question 1 Explanation:
Gullible means easily duped or deceived. Educated and cynical are less compatible with believing what one is told. Reassured is inconsistent with having fallen for potentially malicious jokes in the past, and there is no evaluation of the 13 year old’s timidity, so there is no evidence for pusillanimous.
Question 2 |
The ------- swimmer clung with the last of her strength to the ------- driftwood, hoping to stay above the surface.
energetic…disintegrating | |
exhausted…sinking | |
victorious…jetsam | |
abraded…jagged | |
enervated…buoyant |
Question 2 Explanation:
Enervated means without vigor or strength. Buoyant means able to keep afloat. Exhausted would also fit with weakness, but sinking is inconsistent with driftwood or the hope to stay afloat.
Question 3 |
His children agreed to help their aging father move to an assisted living community after the ------- man failed to take his medications regularly and his weakness endangered him on the stairs.
ferocious | |
insipid | |
conscientious | |
senile | |
contrite |
Question 3 Explanation:
Senile means showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties. This fits with his aging, failing to take medications, and weakness. A ferocious, insipid, conscientious, or contrite man may also have these faults but they are not logical conclusions given the clues of age, memory failure, and weakness.
Question 4 |
The professor’s ------- voice caused me to fall asleep halfway through her lecture and my resulting ------- notes were not enough to pass the pop quiz.
effervescent…inadequate | |
monotone…sufficient | |
hypnotic…insufficient | |
baritone…scarce | |
inaudible…generous |
Question 4 Explanation:
Hypnotic means inducing to sleep and insufficient means not enough. Hypnotic is the best fit, but monotone or inaudible voices could also cause disinterest in a lecture. Insufficient notes would cause failure on a quiz, while neither sufficient nor generous notes would.
Question 5 |
The lawyer’s ambiguous language, omission of details, and evasive responses to questions made it clear that if not exactly lying, she was still -------.
postulating | |
deriding | |
prevaricating | |
confessing | |
accusing |
Question 5 Explanation:
Prevaricating means using ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention. The other choices are not consistent with ambiguous language or evasive responses.
Question 6 |
Her ------- intent was clear when she not only downloaded the virus to the hard drive, but also ------- the company’s faults one by one on the wall in spray paint.
malign…enumerated | |
enthusiastic…described | |
effervescent…scribbled | |
insidious…inscribed | |
duplicitous…cursed |
Question 6 Explanation:
Malign means evil in disposition, nature, or intent. Enumerated means to list or to name one by one. No deception is evident, ruling out duplicitous, and the overt act of spray paint vandalism excludes insidious. Any of the five second words are meaningful choices but enumerated is closest to “one by one.”
Question 7 |
In his effort to leave quickly he fled out the door, knocking over a poorly placed table during his -------.
accession | |
egress | |
stealth | |
crusade | |
degeneracy |
Question 7 Explanation:
Egress means exit, or the action of going out. There are not clues to support that his exit was stealthy, degenerate, or crusading. Accession doesn't fit at all.
Question 8 |
The energetic blackjack dealer skillfully shuffled the cards before dealing them with a(n) ------- flick of her wrist, distracting the worried man from his ------- stack of chips that he must replenish to continue playing much longer.
quick…expansive | |
adroit…dwindling | |
inconsequential…excessive | |
torpid…insignificant | |
germane…grotesque |
Question 8 Explanation:
Adroit means quick or skillful in action or thought. Dwindling means to become gradually less until little remains. Only quick and adroit match the clues of energetic and the skillful shuffling, and the worried man is running out of chips, which matches dwindling and insignificant. Dwindling is a better match because of the implication that the pile is getting smaller.
Question 9 |
The illegal cultivation of opium poppies for heroin production leads to ------- profits, the source of which must be disguised before being invested in legitimate enterprises.
divisive | |
warmongering | |
mediocre | |
olfactory | |
illicit |
Question 9 Explanation:
Illicit means illegal or forbidden by law. While the profits may fund divisive warmongering, that is not stated clearly. A comparison is not found to justify mediocre, nor are there descriptions of scents to justify olfactory.
Question 10 |
Considering a history of chest pains, smoking, and the patient’s scans of blocked arteries, the doctor’s diagnosis of heart disease was ----- and the patient was counseled
to undergo treatment to avoid ----- arrest or other life threatening heart problems.
vapid…police | |
inconclusive…pulmonary | |
conclusive…cardiac | |
epidemic…fatal | |
insincere…thrombotic |
Question 10 Explanation:
Conclusive means decisive or convincing. Cardiac means relating to the heart. The list of evidence and resulting counseling implies that the results are indeed conclusive, not inconclusive, insincere, or vapid. There are no examples to support an epidemic. For the second answer, cardiac matches heart, there is no reason to suspect pulmonary or police arrest.
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