GRE Verbal Rant/post your worst questions

[JSR14]

I'm studying for the test, and came across this question:

 

Overlarge, uneven, and ultimately disappointing, the retrospective exhibition seems too much like special pleading for a forgotten painter of real but ____________ talents

 

a. limited

b. partial

c. undiscovered

d. circumscribed

e. prosaic

f. hidden

 

The correct answer is a/d.

 

I put c/f. I feel like the sentence is ambiguous- doesn't the answer depend on what the prepositional phrase 'for a forgotten painter …' means?
 

The correct answer would have 'for a forgotten painter' to mean 'to have been a forgotten painter.' In other words, the exhibition was too grandiose to have been from a forgotten painter of limited talents. 

 

BUT- what if 'for' goes with special pleading: The exhibition seems too much like special pleading (advocating FOR) a forgotten painter of…' In that case, wouldn't hidden and undiscovered be the correct answer? 

 

Is my reasoning wrong, or is this a crappy question. Opinions welcome- I can't even tell anymore. I hate this test. 

[DerpTastic]

I think the first three words, "Overlarge, uneven, and ultimately disappointing" might be the deciding factor in the reasoning.

[JSR14]

Yeah, I get that- my beef is that the conventions of grammar suggest "for…" modifies special pleading, (meaning that limited talents wouldn't make sense in that context) 

while the semantic meaning (disregarding the grammar of the sentence) suggests the other answer. 

In every practice test I've taken, I've consistently scored in the 162-165 range, and I'm trying to figure out what's keeping me there. I really think the test has a semantic bias (over structure)- and not taking that into account could be my problem. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with DerpTastic that the first three words make the answer a/d instead of c/f. 

 

This is because if "for" went with special pleading, then it would not make sense (to me) for the exhibition to have been "overlarge" if the painter had "undiscovered" or "hidden" talent. That is, if the painter's talents were undiscovered and hidden, then there would not be enough material for there to be an "overlarge" exhibition.

 

Also, "disappointing" along with "special pleading" hints that the painter's talents were limited in some way, rather than hidden/undiscovered (which implies the talent is there but is unknown).

 

That's just my thoughts anyways. I agree that the GRE Verbal is an annoying test though! I don't know many people who write sentences like this in real life!!

 

Edit: To clarify, what I meant was that I think the GRE Verbal is NOT a grammar test. So, I would say that ETS expected test takers to come across this sentence and they might think "Hmm, does the prepositional phrase mean 'advocating for' or 'to have been'?" And then ETS would expect test takers to consider all choices and the "best" choice is to use the "to have been" meaning and choose a/d because that does not result in any inconsistency in meaning, whereas choice c/f with "advocating for" would have resulted in the inconsistencies mentioned above.

 

That is, remember that the GRE Verbal is mainly a vocabulary test, not an English grammar test and I think that will help you. All of these questions (even the reading comprehensions questions, in my opinion) are testing whether or not you know the meaning of these words and subtle differences between them! So, if I understand you correctly, then yes, I agree that the GRE V has a very strong semantic bias and keeping that in mind will help you do well.

Edited April 25, 2014 by TakeruK