<p>hi. I came across this question in the sentence completion part of the critical reading section.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court's reversal of its previous ruling on the issue of state's rights
sustained..infallibility
compromise..consistency
bolstered..doggedness
aggravated..inflexibility
dispelled..vacillation</p>
<p>the obvious answer is B. But the issue is you can argue a possible answer is D. If the Supreme Court is being flexible, or open minded, then isnt the reversal of its ruling aggravating, or making worse, its reputation of inflexibility; in other words making it less inflexible.</p>
<p>sorry, i didnt finish the sentence…the supreme court’s reversal of its previous ruling on the issue of state’s rights … its reputation for…</p>
<p>You cannot argue that D is valid. To aggravate is to inflame or to worsen - so it would be exacerbating the reputation of inflexibility, when in fact reversing a stance would be flexible.</p>
<p>I was thinking that if saying he aggravated my reputation of flexibility, one would mean that ‘he’ made my reputation become that of someone inflexible. So I thought the opposite would be true: He aggravated my reputation of inflexibility --would mean he made my reputation of inflexibility worse (double negative), therefore made me seem flexible.</p>
<p>Who is “he”?
You are not to read anything into questions on the SAT. If you can argue/discuss/dispute an answer IT IS NOT THE BEST ANSWER.</p>
<p>‘He’ can be replaced by ‘it’ (the reversal of states’ rights by the Supreme Court). That’s not important. When you see two correct, you don’t know the best answer dude.</p>
<p>Correction to previous post: ‘it’ would be reversal of previous ruling on states’ rights by the Supreme Court</p>
<p>Try thinking of the definition of “aggravated” as “exaggerated.” That may help your confusion.</p>
<p>It does…and early on, I was actually having second thoughts on the issue: what connotation should I ascribe to the word. You’re right, “exaggerated” might solve it, though “worsen” might give some trouble.</p>
<p>Anyways Thanks.</p>