On the ISEE Upper Verbal Reasoning section, Sentence Completion — single-word items ask a student to choose the one vocabulary word that best fills a blank so the sentence is logical.
The student must use clues of cause, contrast, or result to pick a word that shows doubt about a weak claim, a transforming quality in a description, or painstaking accuracy in notes. Each question is a short sentence with one gap and a set of single-word answer choices.
Common traps are near-synonyms that are too strong or too weak, words that fit the topic but not the logic, and options that ignore a clue that undercuts the meaning.
Sample questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right — nothing is saved, and nothing needs an account.
Question 1Mid
Because the alibi depended on a train that had stopped running years earlier, the detective found it .
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Answer: B — untenable
The impossible train schedule causes the alibi to collapse; untenable means not able to be defended.
Question 2Mid
The poet’s description is , turning the ordinary alley into a place of mystery.
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Answer: D — evocative
Language that creates a vivid mysterious feeling is evocative.
Question 3Easier
The scholar’s notes were so that, decades later, another researcher could trace every quotation to its exact source and page.
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Answer: B — meticulous
“Meticulous” means careful and precise: the notes let another researcher locate every quotation’s exact source and page. Careless, scattered, and thin do not fit this thorough attention to detail.
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