Read the sentence, looking for clues
The word in the blank will describe the "venue" that the concert was moved to. The
key phrase in this sentence, "larger crowds than anticipated," indicates that the
event needed to move to a bigger venue.
Predict an answer
Predict a word meaning "large."
Select the choice that most closely matches your
prediction
(A) commodious means "expansive" or "capacious" and therefore matches
the prediction. This might be an unfamiliar vocabulary word, so you may have to
approach this question by eliminating the other choices. (B) austere means "harshly simple"; although this
may describe a venue, it says nothing about the size, so it's incorrect. Although
(C) grandiloquent, has grand- in it, the word actually refers to an
extravagant or pompous manner of speaking as indicated by the ending -loquent, so it has nothing to do with size.
(D) sanctioned means "allowed" or
"approved," and in an odd quirk of the English language, a sanction can also be a penalty. Neither of
these two contrasting meanings implies anything about the size of the new venue, so
this choice is wrong. (E) egregious
means "outstandingly bad." You may have heard the phrase an egregious error, meaning "a serious
mistake." The event's organizers would not knowingly move the concert to a terrible
venue.
Check your answer
Facing far larger crowds than anticipated, the event staff reneged on their
agreement with the original locale and moved the concert to a more commodious venue.
TAKEAWAY: Word roots can be a great way to figure out the meanings of unknown
words, but sometimes they can be misleading.
