Text Completion

[mkamony]

Hi these guys are abit confusing, I would appreciate your help with them.
Thanks ahead

I)

It is his dubious distinction to have proved what nobody would think of denying, that Romero at the age of sixty-four writes with all the characteristics of ________.

A. maturity
B. fiction
C. inventiveness
D. art
E. brilliance

OA: A

I was expecting something in the other direction like inventiveness, but I don't get how it's maturity.

II)

Stories are a haunted genre; hardly _____ kind of story, the ghost story is almost the paradigm of the form, and _____ was undoubtedly one effect that Poe had in mind when he wrote about how stories work.

Blank 1:
A. debased
B. normative
C. meticulous
Blank 2:
D. pessimism
E. goose bumps
F. curiosity

OA: A, E

[jen]

It is his dubious distinction to have proved what nobody would think of denying, that Romero at the age of sixty-four writes with all the characteristics of ________.

Hi there,

The beginning of that sentence is very interesting! If you "prove what nobody would think of denying," then you've proven something very obvious! ("He proved what nobody would think of denying -- that grass is green.") This is why proving such a thing is a "dubious distinction."

So, maturity makes sense -- of course a 64 year old should be mature (just like grass should be green!)


Stories are a haunted genre; hardly _____ kind of story, the ghost story is almost the paradigm of the form, and _____ was undoubtedly one effect that Poe had in mind when he wrote about how stories work.

Our clue here is "the ghost story is almost the paradigm of the form." Later on, we find that Poe is writing all stories in general, so we can interpret the clue as meaning "the ghost story is almost the paradigm of stories in general."

If the ghost story is the paradigm -- or perfect example -- of stories, then the ghost story is HARDLY a "corrupt" or "weird" version. Thus, "debased" makes perfect sense.

You might have also been confused by "hardly." Sometimes, "hardly" means "only a little" (as in, "I can hardly see you"), but sometimes it means "not at all," often in a bit of a sarcastic sense ("He's hardly a genius.") Here, "hardly" means "not" or "definitely not."

"Goose bumps" in a GRE question is a good example of culturally-based knowledge appearing on the test. Many English language learners would be unfamiliar with this term, which refers to hairs standing up on one's skin in response to fright or suspense (the idea being that when you pluck a goose's feathers, similar bumps become apparent on its skin).

Since the ghost story is the perfect example of stories in general, and ghost stories give you goose bumps, (good) stories in general should also give you goose bumps, according to Poe.

That was a hard question -- you would definitely need to know "paradigmatic" to get it right!

Sincerely,
Jennifer