Question semino

2.1 Words in Context - Contextual meaning of words and phrases
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Seminole/Muscogee director Sterlin Harjo blank television’s tendency to situate Native characters in the distant past: this rejection is evident in his series Reservation Dogs, which revolves around teenagers who dress in contemporary styles and whose dialogue is laced with current slang.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A.

repudiates

B.

proclaims

C.

foretells

D.

recants

Seminole/Muscogee director Sterlin Harjo ______ blank television’s tendency to situate Native characters in the

Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Words in Context — Contextual meaning of words and phrases. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.

Answer explanation

Choice A is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of Sterlin Harjo’s approach to representing Native characters on television. As used in this context, “repudiates” means rejects or refuses to have anything to do with. The text indies that television shows tend to depict Native characters as living long ago, but that Harjo’s series Reservation Dogs focuses on Native teenagers in the present day, representing a “rejection” of the typical approach to depicting Native characters. This context thus indies that Harjo repudiates television’s general tendency regarding Native characters. 

Choice B is incorrect because the text describes Harjo’s “rejection” of the typical approach to representing Native characters on television, so it wouldn’t make sense to say that Harjo “proclaims,” or declares or affirms, television’s general tendency regarding Native characters. Harjo is described as refusing to follow the pattern of depicting Native characters in the distant past, not as proclaiming that pattern. Choice C is incorrect because the text describes television’s tendency to represent Native characters in the distant past as something that is already occurring, not as something that Harjo “foretells,” or predicts will happen in the future. The text is focused on Harjo’s “rejection” of this pattern, not on any predictions he may have about it. Choice D is incorrect because saying that Harjo “recants” something would mean that he withdraws a previously held belief, and it wouldn’t make sense to say that Harjo recants television’s tendency to represent Native characters as living in the past. No beliefs previously held by Harjo are mentioned. Additionally, a tendency isn’t a belief and thus isn’t something that can be recanted.