Critical Reading > Sentence Completions
Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The ------- of Queen Elizabeth I impressed her contemporaries: she seemed to know what dignitaries and foreign leaders were thinking.
(A) symbiosis
(B) malevolence
(C) punctiliousness
(D) consternation
(E) perspicacity
The correct answer is E
Explanation
Keep in mind that the words after the colon will explain or exemplify the first part of the sentence. This means that the missing term describes someone who “seemed to know what dignitaries and foreign leaders were thinking.” Such a person is said to have great “perspicacity,” or perception.
