PP1 (Shorter) Verbal Section 2 (Hard) Q12

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.

• Pair 1: evanescent/transitory

• Pair 2: resurgent/recrudescent

The words controversial and inimical are NOT a pair, so we cross them out: controversial and inimical.

The Right Answer

Use Math Strategy here. The colon (:) indicates that the idea to its left and the idea to its right support each other. Looking to the left, we see that "Economic competition" might cause "protectionism" that "hearkens back to an earlier age." If we rephrase this idea, we can conclude that the protectionism of the past might be coming back. Supporting that idea to the right of the colon, we guess the phrase "coming back" for the blank.

The best match for this guess is the pair resurgent/recrudescent.

The Wrong Answer

• evanescent/transitory: This pair has no evidence. We don't know how long the protectionism of the past or its new rising form today lasted or is going to last. Maybe it lasted for a short time? Maybe it didn't? We just don't know.