• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Academic vocabulary in context (SAT/ACT)). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? The committee's report was ___, covering every possible objection in detail. (thorough) (comprehensive / biased / ambiguous / cursory) → comprehensivePrompt: Read the whole sentence. What does the gap need to mean? (A clue is given in brackets.)
2. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? The historian argued that the treaty was not a sudden break with the past but rather the ___ of decades of slow negotiation. (interruption / origin / rejection / culmination) → culminationPrompt: Identify the relationship: contrast (while, not…but), cause, or explanation (colon).
3. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? The researcher's ___ approach — testing each variable one at a time — produced reliable results. (careful and systematic) (haphazard / methodical / impulsive / casual) → methodicalPrompt: Read the whole sentence. What does the gap need to mean? (A clue is given in brackets.)

• Show an interesting word in a sentence and ask what it might mean from the clues around it.
• Share the objective: Precise words in context (SAT, advanced). Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? The historian's account is notably ___: she presents the evidence for each interpretation without favouring any one of them.
• Step 1: The best word matches the precise meaning required by the context.
• Step 2: Put it back into the sentence and read it aloud: "The historian's account is notably evenhanded: she presents the evidence for each interpretation without favouring any one of them."
• Step 3: So the answer is: evenhanded
• Answer: evenhanded
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? Although the composer's early works were ___, drawing heavily on established forms, her later pieces broke boldly with tradition. (groundbreaking / chaotic / derivative / unfinished) → derivativePrompt: Find the clue that defines or contrasts with the gap (a colon, 'although', 'far from', 'because').
2. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? The artist's later sculptures are strikingly ___, consisting of a few simple shapes in plain materials. (lavish / austere / ornate / cluttered) → austerePrompt: Find the clue that defines or contrasts with the gap (a colon, 'although', 'far from', 'because').

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? Although the composer's early works were ___, drawing heavily on established forms, her later pieces broke boldly with tradition. (groundbreaking / chaotic / derivative / unfinished) → derivativePrompt: Find the clue that defines or contrasts with the gap (a colon, 'although', 'far from', 'because').
2. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? Because the sample size was so small, the researchers were ___ about generalising their results to the wider population. (confident / enthusiastic / cautious / careless) → cautiousPrompt: Find the clue that defines or contrasts with the gap (a colon, 'although', 'far from', 'because').

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-11.