<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color:#8e44ad;">Pairing Up</span></span></p>
<p>First things first. We use the <strong>Pairing Strategy</strong> to identify any synonym pairs among the six answer choices. There are usually two, sometimes one, sometimes three. We call the "triple pair" the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Sxxibos-I" target="_blank">Great White Buffalo</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Pair 1</strong>: be keen on / be inclined to</li>
<li><strong>Pair 2</strong>: dispense with / turn its back on</li>
</ul>
<p>The words arrange and credit are NOT a pair, so we cross them out: <s><span style="color:#e74c3c;">arrange</span></s> and <s><span style="color:#e74c3c;">credit</span></s>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color:#27ae60;">The Right Answer</span></span></p>
<p>Use <strong><span style="color:#8e44ad;">Math Strategy</span></strong><b> </b>to identify a relationship between the ideas in the sentence. The "but" after the word "evidence" tells us that the first idea is in contrast to the second. Looking to the right of "but," we see that it would be a scandal if "trials were avoided." If we rephrase that, it means the government <u>should definitely do the trials</u>. The idea to the left of "but" has to be the opposite of that and indicate that the government should NOT do the trials. Because we have the word "hardly" before the blank, which basically means "no" or "not" in GRE-land, we should guess a word like "hardly want to do the trials."</p>
<p>The best match for this guess is the pair <span style="color:#27ae60;">be keen on / be inclined to</span>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color:#e74c3c;">The Wrong Answer</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="color:#e74c3c;">dispense with / turn its back on</span>: This pair <strong>contradicts</strong> the logic of the sentence. If the government could "hardly turn its back on" trials, that would support the second idea in the sentence after "but." But we want a contrast -- not a support.</li>
</ul>