2012-07-09 09:00:00

The Donner Party ended up trapped in the wilderness in the middle of winter and had to do the unthinkable just to survive; however, even in such a hopeless situation, most of its members remained surprisingly ______ that they would be rescued.

(A) naive
(B) sanguine
(C) dejected
(D) ruddy
(E) melancholy

The correct choice is B

Explanation: To predict the meaning of the missing word, try to identify keywords in the sentence. Here, the best clue is the word "however," which implies an opposite relationship between the state the members of the Donner Party were in and how they felt about it. Since they were in a "hopeless" situation, it would complete the opposite relationship if they remained hopeful. "Sanguine" means "optimistic or positive," so choice B is correct.

None of the other answer choices work, either:

Naive: lacking experience, wisdom, or judgment (nothing in the prompt suggests the Donner Party lacked experience, wisdom, or judgment)
Dejected: sad and depressed (this is the opposite of a correct choice)
Ruddy: having a healthy red color (the missing word describes how they felt, not how they looked)
Melancholy: deeply sad (this is the opposite of a correct choice)