Hi, experts. The above example I’ve taken from https://www.amazon.com/Barrons-GRE-Verbal-Workbook-2nd/dp/143800379X
The book mentioned the answers - jingoism and burgeoning. But, didn’t explain.
I’m ok with the first answer. But, having problem with the second one. If, instead of burgeoning, I put chauvinistic, what is the mistake here?
Can you explain please?
You need ‘burgeoning’ here because the idea is to stress the fact that the American population was growing fast in numbers.
@ TorstenEnglish Language Coach
Torsten, I know the burgeoning makes sense here. But, the sentence also mentioned jingoism to be run wild at the beginning and also mentioned the supposed superiority at the end. And chauvinism is related in meaning to superiority. So, it tempted me to take the answer chauvinistic. So, can you clarify further that why it should not be chauvinistic?
Well, grammatically speaking ‘chauvinistic’ would work here too and only the authors of the book you are using can give you the ultimate answer as to why they think ‘chauvinistic’ doesn’t work. However, using the phrase ‘by some of the chauvinistic population of America’ would imply that the population of America was chauvinistic in general which clearly was not the case.
Let me know if this makese sense.
@
TorstenEnglish Language Coach
Thanks Torsten for your reply. The book didn’t explain anything. They just mentioned the answer. However, one strategy I learnt from different GRE books for text completion is that the clue for the answer to any blank lies immediately before or after the blank. So, the supposed superiority mentioned at the end of the sentence tempted me to choose the answer chauvinistic. However, your reasoning for considering overall general population is reasonable.
Out of interest, what are you using that book for? What is your goal?
@
TorstenEnglish Language Coach
I was consulting the book. And hoping to appear in GRE .
