SAT OwlQuestion bank / Words in Context
Critics have called historian Benedikt Aaltonen's account of the 1918 influenza epidemic in a rural region of Finland ______: it rests on a handful of parish records and a single diary, yet it draws sweeping conclusions about how the entire country experienced the epidemic.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
tentative
exhaustive
impartial
overreaching
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
The critics' point is that thin evidence (a few records and one diary) is used to support sweeping claims about a whole country. A claim that goes beyond its evidence is "overreaching."
Choice A might seem to fit thin evidence, but the text says the conclusions are "sweeping," the opposite of tentative.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. "Sweeping" conclusions are the opposite of tentative ones.
- B. A handful of records and one diary is thin evidence, so "exhaustive" contradicts the description.
- C. The criticism is about too little evidence for too broad a claim, not about bias.
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