Ironically, the party leaders encountered no great ____ their efforts to build a progressive party than the ___ of the progressives already elected to the legislature.
I get that it’s a contrast (ironically). I actually spilt this into 2 sections :
blank 1: contrast b.c of ironically
blank 2: contrast b/c of than
Whilst I got the first blank correct (guessing the word as pushback) the second blank I guessed the word as “not elected” thinking the one I had to contrast it with was “already elected”.
Would this be the wrong line of thinking? What could have gone better?
From GRE Prep Club. I hope that helps.
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Based on the sentence structure, no greater than means the first and the second blank should be quite similar. The word “ironically” indicates the overall meaning of the sentence would somehow generate a paradox that is opposite to what is normally expected.
Therefore, only “obstacle to” and “resistance” are similar to each other. If we plug in these words, then the sentence makes total sense. The party leader encountered no greater hurdles to build the party than the resistance of the progressives already elected to the legislature. You would normally expect the higher struggle to build the party, but ironically means the opposite to this intuition, and hence there were a no greater obstacle to building the party than to face resistance of the progressives already elected.