SAT Writing and Language Test Standard English Conventions

Learn about the Standard English Conventions questions on the SAT Writing & Language Test. This lesson includes an overview, tips, and some practice problems for you to cut your teeth on.

2-Blank Questions

At first blush, you might think that the two-blank Sentence Completion questions would be twice as hard as the one-blanks; 'two blanks' means twice as much work, right? But in fact, they're not actually more difficult. For some students, they're even easier!

This makes more sense once you remember how to solve the Sentence Completion questions. The best way to work through them is in two steps:

Step 1: define the blanks. Use context clues in the sentence to figure out what the words in the blanks will mean.

Step 2: match your answer. Pick the answer that provides the word you need for both blanks.

With one-blank sentence completions, you only have one shot at the answer. But with two-blanks, you get two chances to eliminate each answer. Remember that both words have to match; if even one is wrong, you can confidently eliminate the whole answer without even knowing the other.

That makes two-blank sentence completions a lot more forgiving if your vocabulary isn't quite where you'd like it to be. So go ahead and try it out below, with two example questions to show you how it's done.

Question 1

Here's the first question; take a look at the sentence first:

'Despite his reputation for --------------- and carelessness in his academic work, Alexander was always very --------------- when working on his personal projects.'

Step 1 is just to define the blanks. So what kind of words do you think would go in each blank, and why? The context clues in this sentence indicate that the first blank should be something like 'carelessness.' You might try something like 'laziness,' 'sloppiness,' or 'making mistakes.'

On the other hand, the second blank should be something that's the opposite because the sentence contrasts the 'carelessness in his academic work' with the '--------------- when working on his personal projects.' So some words that might work for the second blank are 'careful,' 'thorough,' or 'precise.' Now on to the answer choices! Here are your options:

1. Intransigence…punctual
2. Contrition…tactful
3. Negligence…meticulous
4. Haste…hapless
5. Penury…conscientious

Let's go through the answers one by one. In choice (A), intransigence means 'stubbornness.' It doesn't fit with the idea of carelessness or laziness, so you can cross off (A) right away. Remember, if either one of the words is wrong, the whole answer goes out the window! Moving on to (B), contrition means 'being sorry about something.' That also doesn't work with carelessness, so (B) is out.

In choice (C), negligence is 'carelessness' - think of the same root word in 'neglect.' And meticulous means that you 'pay attention to the details,' which seems to fit with the second word as well. So, this one may be a candidate. In choice (D), haste might work for the first blank, but hapless doesn't fit the second blank at all; it means 'unlucky,' which has nothing to do with being careful. Again, if it's half wrong, it's all wrong, so get rid of it.

It's looking pretty good for (C) right now, but always read through all the answer choices just to make sure. In (E), penury lets you eliminate the answer right away; this means 'poverty,' which doesn't fit the clue. So (C) is the only answer choice left. Read it back into the sentence to double-check:

'Despite his reputation for negligence and carelessness in his academic work, Alexander was always very meticulous when working on his personal projects.'

Yep, that checks out! (C) is the answer you're looking for.

Question 2

Ready to try another one, with a little less help this time? Here's the sentence:

'Under steady pressure to ---------------, the firm eventually had to replace its outdated equipment and --------------- accounting systems with newer, more efficient versions.'

Let's take a moment before you look at the answer choices to think of what words should go in the blanks. What are your context clues? Ready for the answer choices now? Here you go:

1. Modernize…obsolete
2. Rationalize…implacable
3. Temporize…unique
4. Aggrandize…upgraded
5. Homogenize…dated

Now take a few moments to eliminate what you can, and pick your best guess for the correct answer. Remember that both words have to fit the sentence for the answer to be correct! Ready to check your work? The answer's coming up, so pause the video if you need more time to think. The correct answer is (A).

It's actually easier to start with the second blank here, because there's a clear clue: the parallel between 'outdated equipment and --------------- accounting systems' tells you that the blank will mean something like 'outdated.' Here's what your words mean for the second blank:

1. Obsolete - out-of-date.
2. Implacable - not able to be pleased or calmed down.
3. Unique - one-of-a-kind.
4. Upgraded - better or improved.
5. Dated - out-of-date.

As you can see, you can easily cross off everything but (A) and (E) just by looking at the second word, since both of the words have to match. Now let's just look at (A) and (E). For the first blank, we want a kind of pressure that would result in replacing outdated equipment with new and better things. So we're looking for something like 'improve its equipment' or 'get with the times.'

Modernize in choice (A) fits well, but homogenize in choice (E) doesn't work at all; this word means 'to make everything the same,' which has nothing to do with improvement or getting rid of outdated equipment. Since one of the words for choice (E) doesn't work, we can eliminate it, and we're left with (A) as the correct answer. Just to check, let's plug it back in:

'Under steady pressure to modernize, the firm eventually had to replace its outdated equipment and obsolete accounting systems with newer, more efficient versions.'

That checks out!