“A common misconception among writers is that sentence structure mirrors thought; the more __________ the structure, the more complicated the ideas.”
The word that best fills the blank in the above sentence is
detailed
simple
clear
convoluted
ANSWER
(D) convoluted. The misconception is that structure mirrors thought, so the blank needs the structural counterpart of \"complicated\": the more convoluted the structure, the more complicated the ideas.
Official answer: DSource: Official answer key, GATE 2018 EE (IIT Guwahati)
Read the sentence as two parts. The clause after the semicolon spells out the "misconception" named in the first part: the belief that sentence structure mirrors thought.
What "mirrors" means here. A mirror gives back the same image. So the belief is that structure and thought match: whatever quality the structure has, the ideas are taken to have the same quality.
The "the more X, the more Y" pattern. This pattern links two qualities that increase together. Y is "complicated" and describes the ideas. For the structure to mirror the ideas, X must be the matching quality of a structure: complicated, twisted, hard to follow.
Remove the opposites. (B) simple and (C) clear mean the reverse of complicated. "The more simple the structure, the more complicated the ideas" describes an inverse relationship, not a mirror, so it contradicts the first clause.
Remove the near miss. (A) detailed means having many parts or specifics. It does not mean tangled or hard to follow, and a detailed sentence can still be perfectly clear. It is not the structural counterpart of "complicated".
Confirm the answer. (D) convoluted means intricately twisted and hard to follow, which is exactly the structural counterpart of "complicated". The sentence now reads: the more convoluted the structure, the more complicated the ideas. That is the mirror belief the writer calls a misconception.
Answer: (D) convoluted.
KEY IDEA
The semicolon clause explains the "misconception" that structure mirrors thought. In "the more ______ the structure, the more complicated the ideas", the blank must therefore be the structural equivalent of "complicated". That word is convoluted (twisted, hard to follow).
WATCH OUT FOR
Picking (B) simple or (C) clear because good writing should be simple. The question asks what the misconception says, not what good writing advice is, and a mirror needs matching qualities, not opposite ones. Another trap is (A) detailed: a detailed sentence has many parts, but it is not necessarily complicated or hard to follow.
From the GATE 2018 EE paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 32 Grammar & vocabulary questions, with notes
