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!

3.6: “Although he has …”

In this passage and others like it, the logical relationship between the blanks counts for just as much as our knowledge of the vocabulary. Parallelism is, as always, a useful place to start. “Reputation” is just shorthand for “what people generally think,” so whatever we learn about one will apply to the other. We’re told that the man in this story is thought to be insolent (i.e., rude), so we can reasonably assume that blank (i) will mean “rudeness” or a closely related concept. Of the three answer choices, only one comes close: impudence (C), which is almost a synonym for insolence (but see Vocab Note below). Inscrutability (A) refers to being hard to understand or hard to make sense of. (If you have a friend who is so sarcastic that you can’t tell when they’re being serious, you have a reference point for this word.) A venal (B) person is corrupt or prone to bribery. This might, at first glance, sound like rude behavior, but bring it back to the compatibility test: a person can be extremely polite even while acting in a dishonest manner.

Now turn to blank (ii). The “although” at the beginning of the passage tells us that we’re looking for a contrast between this man’s actual behavior and his reputation. Since his reputation is for rudeness, his behavior must be polite, which is the meaning of courteous (E). Brazen (D) means “bold and shameless,” which is the opposite of what we want here. Predictable (F) is beside the point — a person can be predictably rude or predictably nice.

Vocab Notes

Although impudent and insolent both mean “rude,” they differ slightly in connotation, describing different types and degrees of rudeness. Generally speaking, someone who is impudent might also be described as sassy or cheeky. An insolent person, on the other hand, is arrogant and aloof in addition to being impolite, and their rudeness is seldom construed as amusing. Shakespeare fans will find in King Lear a contrast between these two personality traits: the Fool is cheerfully impudent, whereas Edmund is coldly insolent, increasingly so as the play wears on. For a more up-to-date point of reference, consider the early Harry Potter books/movies: Draco Malfoy is insolent, but the prankish Weasley brothers are better described as impudent.