EXHAUSTIVE is a tricky word. On first glance, it looks like EXHAUSTED meaning extremely tired. But looks are deceiving. EXHAUSTIVE actually describes a thorough and complete study that leaves nothing out.
My dual mandate is to help APUSH and SAT students prepare for their upcoming tests. The following examples illustrate EXHAUSTIVE with examples taken from an APUSH exam and a recent SAT vocabulary in context question!
APUSH
During the mid-to-late 1960s, the experienced outbreaks of racial violence in over 100 cities. For example, the summer of 1967 witnessed particularly destructive riots in Newark and Detroit.
President Johnson responded to the crisis by naming an 11-member Presidential Commission to conduct an EXHAUSTIVE investigation of the urban disorders plaguing America. Led by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois, the commission and its staff followed the president’s directive. Published in July 1968, the 426-page report provided a detailed and EXHAUSTIVE analysis or the riots. Rather than blaming the riots on small groups of troublemakers or outside agitators, the Kerner Commission Report concluded that rioting was a response to decades of “pervasive discrimination and segregation.” The report famously warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.”
APUSH test writers used a passage from the Kerner Commission Report to generate a set of multiple-choice questions. Key points included that the movement of middle-class families to the suburbs and high levels of unemployment among African Americans contributed to the disorders described in the passage.
SAT
SAT test writers often use historic figures and events to illustrate challenging vocabulary words. However, they avoid controversial events like urban riots. Instead, they typically focus on historic figures who are unlikely to cause a heated dispute.
Queen Hatshepsut has the distinction of being one of Ancient Egypt’s most successful and powerful female pharaohs. She successfully navigated a complex political landscape to establish herself as a king rather than just a queen regent.
Unfortunately, jealous male successors deliberately destroyed much of the evidence about her reign. Barring major archaeological discoveries, historians are unlikely to ever have an EXHAUSTIVE and authoritative account of her long and eventful reign.
EXHAUSTIVE – thorough and complete; leaving nothing out