SAT Reading & Writing · Words in Context
Critics initially dismissed the small startup's technology as a minor novelty, but within five years it had become so ______ to the…
Critics initially dismissed the small startup's technology as a minor novelty, but within five years it had become so ______ to the industry that competitors who ignored it found themselves rapidly losing market share.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C: indispensable
The passage describes a technology that went from dismissed novelty to something competitors could not afford to ignore without losing ground, exactly what indispensable names: essential, impossible to do without. Peripheral would mean marginal or unimportant, the opposite of the described shift. Temporary concerns duration, not importance. Controversial concerns disagreement, which the passage doesn't describe; it describes a competitive necessity, not a debate.
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