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Sentence Completion — the word limit and the passage’s own words

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3 real blanks, Test 11 Passage 1 — “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS”

Sentence Completion always comes with a strict word limit, and the answer is always taken straight from the passage — never paraphrased. Here are 3 real blanks from Test 11’s Aral Sea passage.

Q8 — a named detail

Q8: “The Aral Sea was fed primarily by two rivers, the Amu Darya and the __________.”

The passage says the sea was “fed by two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya” — the second river’s name is lifted straight out, unchanged.

Answer: Syr Darya

Q9 — one word, not a phrase

Q9: “Soviet planners diverted river water mainly to expand cultivation of __________.”

The passage says planners “decided to dramatically expand cotton cultivation.” The blank needs only the crop’s name — “dramatically” isn’t part of the answer, even though it sits right next to it in the passage.

Answer: cotton

Q10 — matching the sentence’s own grammar

Q10: “The exposed seabed became covered in a crust of salt and residues of __________ and fertilisers.”

The passage says the crust contained “the pesticides and fertilisers.” The question’s sentence already supplies “and fertilisers,” so only the matching word slots into the gap — copying the whole phrase would break the sentence.

Answer: pesticides

Blank 8 → Blank 9 → Blank 10, revealed in order
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3 blanks from Test 11’s Aral Sea passage

  1. Q8 asks which river fed the Aral Sea alongside the Amu Darya — what goes in the blank?Syr Darya — named directly in the passage.
  2. Q9 asks what crop Soviet planners expanded — what goes in the blank?Cotton — just the crop name, no extra words.
  3. Q10 asks what, besides fertilisers, coated the exposed seabed — what goes in the blank?Pesticides — fitted to the sentence’s own existing grammar.
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