Sentence Completion: Agricultural labor is performed

Let’s try a sentence completion question today. Your job is simply to choose the words that best complete the intended meaning of the sentence. Tip: Be sure to read the sentence carefully, and plug all the answer choices into the blanks before you make your final choice.

In many parts of the United States, agricultural labor is performed outside of a formal wage or Social Security system and is therefore —— national labor statistics.

(A) undercounted in
(B) sanctioned by
(C) exempt from
(D) authenticated by
(E) impeded by

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The best answer is (A). The sentence is essentially saying that some work performed on farms is not remunerated through formal wage systems, for example, wages could be paid but not reported to tax boards. Earnings that are not reported are difficult to track and are therefore not included in many official statistical counts. (A) expresses this meaning. Were you tempted by (C)? That is the trap answer. It’s true that if something is exempt, it’s not included, but in this case, we can’t assume that there is a law or regulation that allows this kind of agricultural labor to go uncounted. For this question, the main strategy is to notice the word “therefore” and simply to read the sentence and understand it. In other words, this question is relatively easy (assuming, of course, that you know the vocabulary words. ;)

Answer

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