Single blank text completion

Text completion problems are relatively straightforward. You’re given a sentence with one or more blanks, and need to fill in the missing words. Instead of sorting through the possible answers and meticulously placing each answer into the sentence, it’s better to read the sentence, imagine your own filler word, and then check the choices to see which are similar.

Remember, almost all of the possible choices are designed to trick you. You don’t want to pollute your mind by trying out the trick answers!

Let’s give it a try. From your own imagination, what word works best for this blank?

The governor was ________ that she won the election.

The obvious clue for the blank would be that she “won the election”. This likely indicates that the filler word should be positive, right?

If you chose a word like happy, joyful, or glad, you’re on the right track!

Now, let’s compare our filler word to the possible answers. Which word best matches our filler word: angry, disappointed, confused, joyful, or irritated?

If you picked joyful, nice work! One might argue that there is no evidence against the choice confused. However, you should always pick the words that make the most sense based on the evidence presented. We know winning an election is a positive outcome, so the governor would most likely be pleased. There is no evidence to indicate that the governor would be confused - so although it’s possible, it isn’t the best choice.

Don’t worry if you get some questions wrong because you don’t know the meaning of a word - it’s more important if you can imagine filler words with a similar meaning to the real answer.