Test (4) Text completion

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

Changes of fashion and public taste are often ------- and resistant to analysis, and yet they are among the most ------- gauges of the state of the public’s collective consciousness.

transparent…useful

ephemeral…sensitive (Answer)

faddish…underutilized

arbitrary…problematic

permanent (Doubt) …reliable

for the first blank: idea_1 and resistant to analysis….

so, the idea1 is same thing as “resistant to analysis”, if the blank was “permanent” then the whole idea 1 would be: “Changes of fashion and public taste are often permanent” which as a whole also represent the same idea that it is resistant to analysis as the change is permanent.

why is this wrong?

2

Idea 1 is both blank i and “resistant to analysis” - you can’t simplify it to just “resistant to analysis”.

This is Big Book. It’s not as representative of the real test as is the more recent ETS books. This question is pretty much trial and error for me.

1 Like
3

totally agree to your point, but the whole idea1 and resistant to analysis is one complete idea when I am solving for blank ii.

But as of now I am solving only blank I, so the idea 1 [and] resistant to analysis are two separate ideas if I am solving blank i first, isn’t it?

4

it’s a double possibility the more I think about it. There is no way to solve for either blank in isolation.

Double possibility on the current GRE is rare.