It has been Virginia Woolf's peculiar destiny to be declared annoyingly feminine by male critics at the same time that she has been _______ by women interested in the sexual revolution as not really eligible to be _______ their ranks.
Answer: D The incongruity here is that one group finds Woolf too feminine for their tastes while another finds her not feminine (or perhaps feminist)enough for theirs. Note that the word peculiar signals that Woolf's destiny is an unexpected one.
Q. No. 8:
An essential purpose of the criminal justice system is to enable purgation to take place; that is, to provide a _______ by which a community expresses its collective ________ the transgression of the criminal.
Answer: A Here is the task is to determine the communal reaction to crime. The writer maintains that the criminal justice system of punishments allows the community to purge itself of its anger, its sense of outrage at the criminal's acts. Thus, it provides a catharsis or purgation for the community. Remember in double blank sentences, go through the answers, testing the first word in each choices and eliminating those that do not fit. In this case you can readily eliminate. Choices B and D: it is unlikely that an essential purpose of the criminal justice system would be the provision of either a disclaimer (denial or disavowal, as in disavowing responsibility for a legal claim) or a document.
Q. No. 9:
When the facts are ________ and data hard to come by, even scientists occasionally throw aside the professional pretense of _______ and tear into each other with shameless appeals to authority and arguments that are unabashedly as hominem.
Answer: A Under the certain circumstances scientist attack each other with ad hominem arguments (personal attacks) and shameless speech. When is this likely to occur? when facts are established or demonstrable or ineluctable (unavoidable)? hardly. Under such circumstances they would rely on facts to establish their case. It is when facts prove elusive that they lose control and, in doing so, abandon their presence of objectivity.
Q. No. 10:
While the disease is in ________ state it is almost impossible to determine its existence by ________.
Answer: D A disease in a latent state has yet to manifest itself and emerge into view. Therefore it is impossible to observe. Remember, in double-blank sentences, go through the answers, testing the first word in each choices and eliminating those that do not fit. When the disease is in critical state, its existence is obvious. Therefore we can eliminate choice B.
Q. No. 11:
Virginia Woolf _______ conventional notions of truth: in her words, one cannot receive from any lecture "a nugget of pure truth" to wrap up between the pages of one's notebook and keep on the mantelpiece forever.
Answer: D The second clauses presents an example of literary mockery. The abstract idea of preserving a nugget of pure teeth is appealing; the concrete example of setting it up on the mantel makes fun of the whole idea.
Q. No. 12:
Although he did not consider himself ________ he felt that the inconsistencies in her story ________ a certain degree of incredulity on his part.
Answer: D Inconsistencies in a story would warrant or justify disbelief or incredulity on anyone's part, whether or not he considered himself a skeptic(doubter).