Explanation

What historical say may sound banal but at the same time is profound. The words of the past have an important and deep consequence but at the same time are blurry in their meaning, which means elusive.
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giving written words great (ii) ___________, and the more material you uncover, the more (iii) ___________ your subject becomes.


In this part of the sentence, the two clauses 'giving written words great ________ ' and 'and the more material you uncover, the more _________ your subject becomes ' are joined by 'and' conjunction not 'but'. That's why I think circumstantial should be a better fit in the last blank instead of 'elusive'.

I too believe that 3rd blank should be circumstantial. @carcass - can you please recheck the answers?

The answer choices are correct, guys.

Could you tell me why in your opinion the answer to the third blank is I and not G?

Please explain.

Regards
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The two sentences after ":" separated by comma "," should represent opposites as referred by the word 'antithetical truths'. Hence, even though those two sentences are joined by 'and' in order to give the opposite meaning elusive is best option rather than circumstantial.

Agreed - Thank you

Let me introduce you one freaking complexity that can help you remember it for ever:
- "consequential" beside meaning sequential means "important". (That's OK, you probably knew it from Magoosh words).
- However, "consequent" beside meaning sequential does not mean "important". (I confronted with this trap in a Manhattan prep test)
- While I was so proud that I would not mistake "-tial" form from the other one, I omitted "consequence" as a noun form of consequent, because I deduced that it would not mean importance. Guess what? When I saw the answers, I was like "WHAT THE..." so "consequence" does mean "IMPORTANCE".

+ Hope you do not make my mistake in the future

can't mark 3 options in this question, please fix.

The timer is correct.

try again the proper usage.

thank you
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At first, I have no idea what this sentence wants to talk about.
After I have read explanation from carcass, I can see why the answers must be C,E, and G. Other options do not fit the context of the sentence.

Why banal is correct in option i?

Historical research makes two somewhat antithetical truths that sounded (i) __________come to seem profound.

Historical research about two opposite truths that sounded "something", but now seem to be very thoughtful. So what would be the best option? banal means trite, so that means truths that had sounded overly used but turned out be very thoughtful.

Hope that makes sense.
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Historical research makes two somewhat antithetical truths that sounded (i) __________come to seem profound: knowledge of the past comes entirely from written documents, giving written words great (ii) ___________, and the more material you uncover, the more (iii) ___________ your subject becomes.

the phrase "come to seem profound" suggests that they were not profound. Therefore banal is the correct choice for the first blank.

Then comes the enumeration of the two antithetical truths that sounded banal. Antithetical means opposed to each other.

First Truth - knowledge of the past comes entirely from written documents, giving written words great (ii) importance. So the word from the choice list is consequence.

Second Truth - the more material you uncover, the more (iii) difficult to grasp your subject becomes. Why? because this truth is antithetical to the previous one and should therefore give opposite meaning. If the first truth states knowledge comes entirely from the written word, the second truth should say that there is nothing or little knowledge in written word - more material you uncover, the more elusive your subject becomes.

The answer choices are C, D and G - banal, consequence and elusive.
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Cringy