The last time we looked at a short verbal problem, it was of the
“ridiculously, stupidly difficult” variety. You might find it
interesting to see how the GRE test makers use challenging
vocabulary, but on a medium-difficulty problem. Here’s a two-
blank sentence completion we cover in our GRE Bootcamp event:
The social reformer proposed locating juvenile detention
facilities close to parks, playing fields, and greenbelts,
theorizing that (i) _____ to such sites could have a favorable
effect on the troubled youths, as opposed to the (ii) _____
influence associated with locations in the heart of high-crime
slum areas. In a multi-blank sentence completion, there are
three choices for each blank. But I’m not even going to show the
choices to you yet, because you shouldn’t look at them on Test
Day until you figure out the meaning of the blanks yourself. One
nice trick on these problems is to start with the blank that’s
easiest to figure out. I’ll start with the first blank here
because, in my opinion anyway, it’s t