This page is part of my unofficial solutions manual to the GRE Paper Practice Book (2e), a free resource available on the ETS website. They publish the questions; I explain the answers. If you haven’t worked through the Practice Book, give Section 3 a shot before reading this!
3.24: Renaissance Prints, pt. 2
This is yet another recurring problem type. I call it “Vocab in Context,” for reasons that will soon become apparent. You’ll see these about once or twice per section, usually as one of multiple questions attached to a medium-sized reading passage.
With “Vocab in Context,” the trick is to focus first on the vocab, then on the context. This particular problem could be paraphrased as follows:
Which of the following five words means the same thing as “passive,” in the context of the passage?
There are two parts to this question, which suggests a two-step approach. In Step 1, we consider each of the answer choices and ask: is this a valid meaning for the target word? In this case, our target word is passive, which our learned friend Dr. Google defines as “accepting or allowing what happens.” With that definition in mind, here’s how the process plays out:
- (A) Disinterested means “detached, uninvolved, or impartial.” This is a close match for the meaning of passive, so we keep this word.
- (B) Submissive means “ready to yield to the will of others,” which is close in meaning to passive. Put this one in the keep pile too.
- (C) Flaccid literally means “limp,” but figuratively it means “dull” and “uninspiring.” This is not a close match, so we discard this answer.
- (D) Supine literally means “lying face up.” Figuratively, as you might expect, it means “weak” or “yielding” — a good match for passive and therefore a word to keep.
- (E) Finally, unreceptive means, well, “not receptive,” as in “not open to new ideas.” This is not the same thing as passive, so we can discard this one.
At this point, without even looking at the passage, we’ve managed to eliminate two of the five answer choices. Now, in Step 2, we take all the answers that survived Step 1 and plug them into the sentence to see which one fits the best. Before we proceed, though, look at the definitions of submissive (B) and supine (D) once more. Notice that they’re virtually the same. Just like emerge and coalesce in question 3.5, these two words are too close in meaning for just one of them to be correct. Since they can’t both be right, they must both be wrong.
Even without that consideration, though, disinterested (A) is our winner here. We’re told that the printmakers “reliably record” what’s going on around them — not that they bend or yield (B, D) to rulers, the Church, or any other kind of authority.
Vocab Notes
Struggling to remember the meaning of supine? Med students use this mnemonic: the hand is in supine position when you can scoop soup with it (i.e., when the palm is upward). The opposite of supine is prone, which means “lying face down.”
By the way, disinterested is not the same thing as uninterested, at least for GRE purposes. If you’re disinterested, you’re impartial — you don’t have a direct stake (an interest) in the outcome. Uninterested means you don’t care — you lack interest in what’s going on.