ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's a Shmoopy question for you...

00:05

Which word could fill in the blank so that

00:07

the sentence below makes sense?

00:10

Although Elisabeth didn't get into her first-choice college, she was reminded of her blank options

00:15

when her mother mentioned the many other schools where she had been accepted.

00:20

Here are the potential answers.

00:26

Elisabeth's mom says that Elisabeth has "many" other options for college.

00:35

So we figure the word in the blank has to be a synonym for "many."

00:38

(A) doesn't fit because "limitation" means a restriction of some kind.

00:44

Both "deficiency" and "scarcity" mean a shortage or lack of something

00:51

so (B) and (C) are the opposite of what we're looking for.

00:55

(D) looks promising because "myriad" means a very large number. If this is the one, though,

01:00

it would mean that Elisabeth's mom is exaggerating a bit.

01:04

"Myriad" was the word originally used in classical history to describe a unit of ten thousand.

01:08

That would be a lot of application essays.

01:13

After taking a glance at (E), though, we're sure (D) is the word we're looking for.

01:18

An "inadequacy" is a failing or lack of something, so it doesn't say what we need

01:23

it to. Even though it means that Elisabeth's mom

01:25

is probably stretching the truth a bit, we're going with (D) on this one.

01:28

D for "Don't judge her mom too harshly."

Full Transcript