PP1 (Shorter) Verbal Section 1 (Medium) Q9

Pairing Up

First things first. We use the Pairing Strategy to identify any synonym pairs among the six answer choices. There are usually two, sometimes one, sometimes three. We call the "triple pair" the Great White Buffalo.

• Only One Pair: mendacity/prevarication

  • In cases such as these, we don't even have to justify our answer with logic, but we should anyway. What if we made a mistake in pairing?

The words aspiration, insensitivity, baseness, and avarice have no pair, so we cross them out: aspiration, insensitivity, baseness, and avarice.

The Right Answer

Use Math Strategy here. The phrase "even in" indicates that the two ideas contrast each other. The second idea (the first idea has the blank, so we focus on the second idea first) says that "lying is NOT found..." Thus, the first idea has to be the opposite of this -- "lying IS found," or "lying is part of everyday life." Thus, we guess the word "lying" for the blank.

The best match for this guess is the pair mendacity/prevarication.

The Wrong Answers

No other word has a synonym pair, so they're all wrong.