2014-05-14 09:00:01

The professor affected such  ______ air when he presented his thesis that students in his class came to ______ that his thesis that the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare's plays as fact, rather than conjecture.

(A) a supercilious ... repudiate
(B) a magisterial ... believe
(C) a pompous ... deduce
(D) a humble ... conclude
(E) an authoritative ... reject

The correct answer is B
Explanation: To find the missing words, try to predict their meanings by using clues in the sentence. Here, the best clues are that the thesis became "fact" for the students and the construction of the phrase that includes the missing words—"such ______ that _____," implying a causal relationship. Thus, it can be concluded that the professor spoke confidently, leading his students to accept the thesis as fact, meaning the first word should mean confident and the second accept.

Choice B is correct, then, as "magisterial" means "showing great authority or officialdom," while "believe" is "to accept something as true." None of the other choices work, either:

supercilious: behaving as though one thinks he/she is superior to others
repudiate: to deny the truth of
(neither word really makes sense in context, especially since the prompt implies the class accepted the thesis as fact, rather than denying it)

pompous: affectingly and irritatingly grand or self-important
deduce: t0 arrive at a fact by reasoning
(the professor might have been pompous, but the prompt implies that his lectures convinced the class of his thesis, not that the students reasoned it themselves)

humble: showing a modest or low estimate of self worth
conclude: to arrive at a judgment by reasoning
(the prompt implies that his lectures convinced the class of his thesis, not that the students reasoned it themselves; further, humble lectures would be unconvincing)

authoritative: commanding and self-confident
reject: to dismiss as inappropriate or not to one's taste
(the prompt does imply that the professor spoke with confidence, but the confidence led the students to believe his thesis, not to deny or dismiss it)