Question Bank / Reading and Writing / Words in Context
Words in Context SAT question
Reading and Writing · Craft and Structure · Medium · Answer it here, explanation included.
Some researchers believe that the genes that enable groundhogs and certain other mammals to hibernate through the winter by slowing their breathing and heart rates and lowering their body temperature may be blank in humans: present yet having essentially no effect on our bodily processes.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
ExplanationShow
Choice D is the best answer because it logically completes the text’s discussion about genes related to hibernation. In this context, “dormant” means inactive. The text explains that the same genes that enable certain nonhuman mammal species to hibernate during the winter by altering their bodily processes are also found in our species but have “essentially no effect” on humans’ bodily processes. In other words, these genes don’t function in humans.
Choice A is incorrect because in this context, “decisive” means has the power to affect the outcome of something, but the text states that genes related to hibernation are instead inactive in humans—that is, the genes don’t affect humans’ bodily processes, although they are present in their bodies. Choice B is incorrect because in this context, “lacking” means missing, but the text states that the genes are present in humans, though inactive. Choice C is incorrect because “variable” means characterized by the potential to change, but the text indicates that these genes don’t change in their effect on humans’ bodily processes; instead, the genes are consistently inactive in humans.
Drill this skill on Aceit
Adaptive practice, a daily plan, and score tracking take a free account so we can save your work.
More Words in Context questions
- Artist Marilyn Dingle's intricate, coiled baskets are ______ sweetgrass and palmetto palm. Following a Gullah technique that originated in West Africa, Dingle skillfully winds a th
- The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.
- Rejecting the premise that the literary magazine Ebony and Topaz (1927) should present a unified vision of Black American identity, editor Charles S. Johnson fostered his contribut
- Some economic historians ______ that late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century households in the United States experienced an economy of scale when it came to food purchases—the
- The following text is from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. The narrator is being driven in a carriage through a remote region at night. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer a
- Economist Marco Castillo and colleagues showed that nuisance costs—the time and effort people must spend to make donations—reduce charitable giving. Charities can mitigate this eff