ASVAB · Vocabulary in Context

Read the passage and answer: The students were anxious about the upcoming exam. Most had been studying for weeks, but the comprehensive nature of the test meant covering material from the entire semester. What does 'comprehensive' mean in this context?

Correct answer

Covering everything; including all or much of the material

  1. A Covering everything; including all or much of the material
  2. B Easy to understand
  3. C Difficult
  4. D Short

Why this is the answer

Context clues: 'covering material from the entire semester' is essentially a definition of comprehensive. The word 'comprehensive' means complete, thorough, covering all aspects. Distractor analysis: 'easy to understand' — comprehension is a different word meaning understanding; comprehensive means covering everything; 'short' — the opposite; 'difficult' — comprehensive doesn't necessarily mean difficult, though comprehensive tests often are. Note the word family confusion: comprehensive (covering everything), comprehensible (understandable), comprehension (understanding). On ASVAB, words may be used in unfamiliar ways; rely on context, not just prior knowledge of the word. If two answer choices both seem possible, the one with stronger context support wins. If you don't know the word at all, use process of elimination plus context clues to make the best guess.
Source: ASVAB PC — Context Definitions

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About this topic: Vocabulary in Context

Vocabulary-in-context questions ask what a word means as used in the passage. Substitute each answer into the sentence; the one that keeps the sentence's meaning is correct, even if the word has other meanings elsewhere. This is one of 13 Paragraph Comprehension questions on vocabulary in context, each with a full explanation on a single study page.

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