hongquan7389

Please explain me this Critical Reading question in Blue Book Page 710:
Galloping technological progress has made consumers ..........: advances undreamed of a generation ago are so common that they seem humdrum.
(A) Flabbergasted (B) miffed (C) jaded (D) wary (E) embittered
I think it should be A - Flabbergasted but the answer key is C.

xitammarg

this sentences uses a very common structure on the SAT: we have an independent clause with a blank in it, followed by a punctuation mark, followed by a phrase that defines the word that should go in the blank.

(a) can't be right here because "flabbergasted" has a connotation of utter surprise, which contradicts the word "humdrum" in the prompt sentence.

(c) is the best answer because it communicates the idea that consumers can't be surprised anymore, which is what we'd need to go along with the words "common" and "humdrum" in the prompt sentence.

cc411

Jaded= "bored upper class."

hongquan7389

thank you!

Choi

Now wait a sec - I find this debatable.

In this question, THE PROGRESS has made the consumers BLANK.
HUMDRUM refers to advances, not the consumers - so that can't be used to justify that jaded is the correct answer.


I picked A - flabbergasted... it seems illogical at first, but wait a sec now - hear me out!
I interpreted this question in this way - consumers are surprised that technology that was new long ago is now trite. For an instance, an old timer who thought the telephone was new is taken back by the huge number of people who own cellphones.

The progress didn't make them "bored" - in fact, "galloping", which is associated with progress makes it seem anything but boring.

I'm going to have to say this is a poorly made question - A might not be a great answer, but C is certainly questionable.

xitammarg

the advances seem humdrum, but they have to seem humdrum TO someone--and the people they seem humdrum to are the consumers. so "seem humdrum" is the operative phrase, not just the word "humdrum" by itself.

"flabbergasted" means a lot more than surprised.

"jaded" doesn't mean "bored," either--while you could say that it has the connotation of boredom, it actually means that you can't find anything surprising anymore. if anything, it's closer to "spoiled".

lotf629

@choi-- You're right about which word "humdrum" modifies, but xittamarg is still right about the question. Is something "humdrum" going to make you "flabbergasted"? Nope.

Do you see how "advances undreamed of a generation ago" in the second half of the sentence (or, for you grammar wizards, the second clause) is referring to the "galloping technological advances" from the first half of the sentence? Try it with some easy synonyms:

"Really fast progress has made consumers ..........: these really fast advances are so common that they seem humdrum."

And "humdrum" means "boring." So here's what we've got:

"Really fast progress has made consumers ..........: these really fast advances are so common that they seem boring."

Clearly, the consumers feel like the really fast progress is boring. So we need an adjective that could describe the type of person who is bored even by fast progress.

At this point, none of the choices look very good. But actually, "jaded" in the dictionary has a specific meaning which is slightly different from how it is normally used. According to the dictionary def, if you are "jaded," you are overly accustomed to something to the point where it seems dull or you don't notice it any more. So here it's really a pretty good choice, as long as you know the exact meaning of the word.

Jaded in novels and magazines--or in Aerosmith songs ("Hey, ja-ja-jaded. . .")--usually means what cc411 said: world-weary and bored. We typically use it to describe people who have an excess of luxury or privilege and have become insensible to those things. But that's not the only way to use it, and that's not what it means in this question.

hongquan7389

I chose "flabbergasted" because I thought that Galloping technological progress has surprised consumers by making advances undreamed of a generation ago common.