A misconception frequently held by novice writers is that sentence structure mirrors thought: the more convoluted the structure, the more _________ the ideas.

A) complicated
B) engaged
C) essential
D) fanciful
E) inconsequential
F) involved


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Why Not Engaged & Involved, They Also Make a Pair

Actually in this sentence they don't make a pair - in the sense of giving the same meaning to the sentence. "Involved" means difficult or complicated when it is used to discuss something passive like ideas, so that pairs with Choice A.

"Involved" can mean "engaged in a personal relationship" but only when it is attributed to beings such as humans or other animals and not when applied to thoughts. You can have a personal relationship to your thoughts but they cannot have a personal relationship with you. Your thoughts can be complicated, though, so that is what involved means in this sentence.

"Engaged" means "busy or occupied" so clearly someone could be "engaged in the business of buying and selling jewels" and that person can also be "involved in the jewelry business." But see that this sentence works because we have an intelligent being at the center of the action. A person is busy or occupied. This means that in a different sentence these two words would make synonymous sentences! But the sentence would have to be one that involved people or animals.

This is actually a common tactic on the GRE. They will give you certain words - such as "obsequious" - that could not really be applied to anything but humans and maybe some few types of animals. This is one way to eliminate an answer or two!
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David Newland
Veritas Prep GRE Instructor