Because we assume TC

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

Because we assume the (i) ________ of natural design, nature can often (ii) __________ us: as the Wright brothers noted, the birds initially misled them in almost every particular, but their Flyer eventually succeeded by being the least avian of the early flying machines.

Blank (i) Blank (ii)

|(A) quirkiness (D) galvanize
|(B) preeminence (E) befriend
|(C ) maladroitness (F) beguile

I’m trying to apply math strategy here,
Because ( +ve support) , blank 1 & 2 must be + or ( both ) must be -ve.

Now the ( : ) indicate support. The sentence after means first nature misled ( but -ve ) then it helped.

Now the idea in the 2nd part must equal in meaning the first part.
Preeminence ( +ve)

Now the 2nd blank is ( beguile) but why?
I chose ( befriend) because we have ( often ) which I reflected that it equals to the second part ( eventually succeeded by being the least avian of the early flying machines.) which is positive.
I find the ( idea of the 2nd part is positive ).This text will be blurred
May someone explains ?

2

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Clue for second blank ii is mislead so I will put in the blank and look for similar word. Now, for blank ( i ) we assume something of natural design, nature can often mislead__ us. So if its mislead us often then I will be looking for a word that matches with the idea of superior or something relating to excellence ----> hence it becomes we assume the excellence of natural design , nature often mislead us .

3

Thanks, but I need a methodological solution with applied strategies.

4

I’ll give this a go how I approached. I did the second blank first.

Look after the colon, support as you said…notice that the example given was that nature mislead the Wright brothers, so re-use “mislead” in the second blank. Synonym would be beguile, which means to deceive.

The first blank is found in a similar manner using logic from the support…since the Wright brothers assumed that nature made a perfect flying machine (the bird), they attempted to replicate it, but didn’t succeed. So the first blank would be something like “perfectness.” Preeminence fits since the others are not positive (one is indifferent and the other is negative).

Hope that helps.

1 Like
5

they succeeded when it mentions " but their Flyer eventually succeeded by being the least avian of the early flying machines."
here is where I’m puzzled. the first part said that they are misled then they succeeded. So, they succeeded at the end.

6

Focus on the fact that their assumption was wrong to complete the blank. The assumption was that birds were the best natural design. That’s the key piece.

Try reading the following in the contrary: “they eventually succeeded by being the least avian”

Could also be said like this: “they continued to fail by being the most avian” So, copying nature’s great flyers wasn’t a good idea.