Explanation

The sentence describes Ms. de la Fressange as a businesswoman but none of the words besides “canny” and “shrewd” provide sentences that are alike in meaning. Thus the correct answer is a canny (Choice C) and a shrewd (Choice E).

why not option D??
coz keyword despite her relax... and last word herself justify option D.kindly explain

No because industrious means : working energetically and devotedly; hard-working; diligent

You do need canny which means : astute; shrewd; knowing; sagacious

In this sentence you do need two words alike in meaning. Canny and industrious are different.

Hope this helps

I thought this question could be answered with two not so synonymous words like effective and creative. As she knows how to brand herself, that may indicate to her effectivity as a businesswoman also, to brand herself she might need to be creative despite her seemingly relaxed style. I get that I am wrong according to the official book but I can't find anything in the sentence that suggests that she was shrewd and canny which are ofcourse synonyms.

Regards,
Scrat

a quick question to gre gurus: For SE questions, would answers always be the synonyms to each other?

Now this is a great question!

The answer is "most of the time they are clearly synonyms of each other - but not always!"

Here is an example from the textbooks used in the Veritas Prep GRE course. While this is not an official question it is very similar to several questions from official GRE materials. I use this question because it has two advantages. 1) You have likely not seen it before and 2) It is a perfect illustration of my point.

Let's start with the answer choices:

A) Solution
B) Mixture
C) Explanation
D) Extension
E) Settlement
F) Attenuation

If you were to just look at these answers you would say that the synonyms are what?

A and B or A and C, right? A Solution is a Mixture on the Quant section! And a Solution is an Explanation here on GRE Club!

But what about when we put it into the sentence?

"As the city’s activities ground to a halt because of an impasse in the union’s negotiations with management, all eyes turned to the president in the hopes that he would create an equitable _____________ to the weeks-old transit strike."

What is the correct answer now?

Remember that the two correct answers create a SENTENCE with the same meaning. And while the answers themselves are usually synonyms, they do not have to be.

OA
_________________

As I just described in the immediately prior post, the correct answers do not always have to strictly be synonyms of each other, and as you see from my example the two words could possibly be as different as "creative" is from "effective".

But the difference is this: In my example the two answers - although apparently not synonyms themselves - absolutely give you a sentence with the same meaning when they are added in. But not the same for the two words you have chosen.

"a creative businesswoman" is different from "an effective businesswoman" so it is the fact that IN CONTEXT the words do not produce the same meaning to the sentence that keeps "creative" and "effective" from being the answers here.

As to "shrewd" and "canny" - the sentence gives us the basis for these words by telling us that the businesswoman knows how to market her brand. So shrewd and canny work just as well as effective and creative and - as you mentioned - they also give the sentence the same meaning. And that is the point right?

Sentence Equivalence is not just about picking two words that make a great and logical sentence...it is about picking two words that make a great, logical, and equivalent sentence!
_________________

Despite her relaxed and flexible style, Ms. de la Fressange is __________ businesswoman who knows how to market her brand: herself.


Shrewd and canny are the only two words that will produce two sentences that are identical in meaning.
_________________

In 90% of the cases, they will be synonyms. But there is a 10% opportunity that they will not be synonyms. These non-synonymous choice words usually appear in SE that are hard.
_________________

wow... I got all 7 of these hard SE questions correct and finished them all very quickly too (mostly 30s-40s, max for one question was 55s). I definitely struggled more with the medium section somehow and got three of those wrong. I am just very satisfied and this deff boosted my confidence. This website has been very helpful and I just want to thank you Carcass for putting the effort into creating this and helping people with this great free resource. I Wish I found this before I took the GRE the first time lol, but i'm sure I will crush it next time thanks to you!

I am confident you will smash it.

We are here whenever you need for a guidance and suggestions for your second assault

What's frustrating is that the official ETS explanation contradicts the ETS explanation for this question:

greprepclub.[com]/forum/og-vpr-17-a-particular-bacterium-that-has-never-encountere-2808.[html]

(I can't post links yet so remove the brackets [])

In this question, the answers aren't synonyms at all. And if we were to choose the words that are alike in meaning, we would be incorrect.

ETS never contradicts itself.

The direction is clear: the two words not necessarily must be a synonym. The could also two words that make the sentence identical in meaning

The question above is perfectly fine