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Difficulty: HardIdentifying Synonym and Near-Synonym Pairs

Although the committee's report was ostensibly designed to offer an objective assessment of the municipality's fiscal restructuring, critics noted that its conclusions were surprisingly ________, subtly steering the narrative to justify pre-existing executive decisions.

Which TWO of the following options, when inserted into the sentence, create completed sentences that are functionally equivalent in meaning?

  1. tendentiousAnswer
  2. B
    disinterested
  3. partisanAnswer
  4. D
    dogmatic
  5. E
    impartial
  6. F
    empirical

Answer

The two correct selections are the words meaning biased or promoting a specific agenda: 'tendentious' and 'partisan'.
The sentence structure hinges on the concessionary contrast introduced by 'Although... ostensibly... objective'. This indicates that the conclusions were actually the opposite of objective. The phrase 'subtly steering the narrative' provides further proof that the missing word must describe a biased or opinionated stance. Both 'tendentious' and 'partisan' express this exact meaning of promoting a partisan agenda or biased viewpoint, thereby producing completed sentences with identical meaning.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze structural signals and context clues.
The concession transition 'Although... ostensibly designed to offer an objective assessment' sets up a contrast between what the report was supposed to be (objective) and what critics found it to be in reality (biased). Furthermore, the elaboration clause 'subtly steering the narrative to justify pre-existing executive decisions' confirms that the blank must mean biased, opinionated, or non-objective.
Establishing sentence valence and polarity is essential for isolating the target meaning before evaluating synonym pairs.
2
Identify functional synonym pairs among the 6 choices.
Pair 1: 'tendentious' and 'partisan' both mean biased or slanted toward a specific cause. Pair 2: 'disinterested' and 'impartial' both mean unbiased or neutral.
Sentence Equivalence requires picking two words that not only fit the sentence independently but also yield identical sentence meanings.
3
Evaluate the identified pairs against the contextual requirement.
The pair meaning unbiased ('disinterested' / 'impartial') contradicts the required negative/biased valence. The pair meaning biased ('tendentious' / 'partisan') perfectly completes the contrast and matches the supporting clue.
Cross-verifying pairs ensures elimination of false synonym distractors that fail contextual fit.

Key Concept

Identifying Synonym and Near-Synonym Pairs in Context
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Identifying Synonym and Near-Synonym Pairs

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