Vocabulary: Fill-in-the-Blanks [Logo]
After each sentence, select the word which best fills in the blank left in that sentence. When you're done, click on "Submit Application" at the bottom of the test, and the computer will grade your answers. A definition of the preferred word will also appear whether you got the answer right or not.

1.  The pirates ___________ their swords and demanded that the captain split the booty evenly among them.
A. bilked
B. brandished
C. augmented
D. loathed

2.  The students' __________ attitude toward the assignment astonished the librarian. He knew they wouldn't finish their work on time.
A. dilatory
B. salubrious
C. ingratiating
D. dogmatic

3.  Carlos's ____________ approach to his college education meant that he had many false starts and had to start over again.
A. desperate
B. bodacious
C. droll
D. desultory

4.  The __________ in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath stirs our pity for the economically oppressed and unlucky farmers.
A. pertinacity
B. pathos
C. serenity
D. prevarication

5.  Nigerians seem to have a natural ____________ to excel in long-distance running; in fact, their success demands years of hard work.
A. absolution
B. guile
C. proclivity
D. atrophy

6.  The English Department was upset when the History Department offered a writing course, which the English profs regarded as their _____________ .
A. bailiwick
B. bodega
C. turpitude
D. oubliette

7.  Geezer had no ______________ about going into the principal to tell her what he thought.
A. juxtaposition
B. lampoon
C. facade
D. compunction

8.  The basketball star's ___________ gestures to give back to his community were praised by sportswriters everywhere.
A. laconic
B. laudable
C. salacious
D. rancid

9.  Turgeweed's offenses against the old women in the retirement community were the most ____________ crimes the detectives could remember.
A. heinous
B. decorous
C. coherent
D. abstruse

10.  The river continued to rise, but the sunshine breaking through the clouds ___________ our fears.
A. accrued
B. bowdlerized
C. allayed
D. exacerbated

11.  Students got together in a/an _____________, secretly conspiring to get rid of their instructor.
A. omnibus
B. honorary
C. autoclave
D. conclave

12.  The man's arms were so ____________ that he could hardly wear shirts with sleeves.
A. hirsute
B. antiseptic
C. omnivorous
D. copasetic

13.  The __________ effects of sugar on one's teeth is especially dangerous in one's youth.
A. pervasive
B. pernicious
C. raucous
D. mordant

14.  Dogbody's _____________ criticism of our government's mishandling of funds laid the groundwork for reform.
A. odious
B. infirm
C. salient
D. trenchant

15.  Gesualdo's speech was nearly as ___________ as his fat little body.
A. egregious
B. rotund
C. dubious
D. salubrious



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