<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I am stumped on this one (well I saw the answer, but I need an explanation...thanks!).</p>
<p>Could you please go through each choice and tell me why it is right or wrong, and for some of the choices, why although they seem compelling, they are wrong? Thanks!</p>
<p>Question: </p>
<p>Despite its apparent --------------, much of early Greek philosophical thought was actually
marked by a kind of unconscious dogmatism that led to -------------- assertions.</p>
<p>(A) liberality ... doctrinaire
(B) independence ... autonomous
(C) intransigence ... authoritative
(D) fundamentalism ... arrogant
(E) legitimacy ... ambiguous</p>
<p>By the way, the answer is A.</p>
<p>The key word in the original is “dogmatism.” So you are looking for a rough synonym of that to fill the second slot. The word “despite” at the opening tells you that a rough antonym of “dogmatism” will fill the first spot. <em>A</em> is the only pair that fits both of those requirements.</p>
<p>B does not work because “autonomous” does not refer to any sort of dogmatism. It’s kind of a liberal idea, but not always.</p>
<p>C does not work because “intransigence” is similar to dogmatic.</p>
<p>D is wrong because “fundamentalism” is usually a kind of dogmatism, and also because both liberal people AND dogmatic people can be “arrogant.”</p>
<p>E is wrong because “ambiguity” is unrelated to dogmatism, and “legitimacy” is not really dogmatism’s opposite. On the contrary, it’s often related to dogmatism – but not always.</p>
<p>@WasatchWriter Thanks! I picked E, but I see why it’s wrong…this question was just a lot of vocab I guess…doctrinaire, dogmatism, and intransigence, all of which may appear on the hard sentence completions of the SAT. Thanks, once again!</p>