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The basic meaning conveyed by the sentence is that Manhattan is something more than just “the quintessential (ideal, perfect) urban environment.” That meaning is supported by the known information that “David Hosack built the first public botanical garden in the United States” in Manhattan.

So, Manhattan isn’t just an “urban environment”; the first botanical garden was built there. With that basic meaning in mind, let’s start pairing answer choices.

Choice (A), intriguing (interesting, arousing curiosity), is in keeping with the idea that Manhattan is more than just “the quintessential urban environment” and makes sense in the broader context. However, “intriguing” does not pair with any other answer, so we must eliminate (A).

Choice (B), vibrant (full of energy, lively), also perhaps could work in this context but does not pair with any other answer, so we must eliminate (B).

Choice (C), notable, pairs with choice (F), significant, as both essentially mean “important” or “worthy of notice.” This meaning is in keeping with the idea that Manhattan is more than just “the quintessential urban environment,” so we may have found the correct answer pair. Let’s check the remaining two choices just to be sure.

“Pioneering” (new and original, groundbreaking) and “cosmopolitan” (worldly, multinational) do not create the same sentence meaning. Notice that “pioneering” makes sense in the context of both being “the quintessential urban environment” and being the home of “the first public botanical garden.” However, since it does not pair with any other choice, it cannot possibly be correct.

So, choices (C) and (F), notable/significant, not only are logical but also are the only two answers that create the same sentence meaning. There are no other synonym pairs among the answer choices.

LEARNING JOURNAL

What went wrong, and what can you do differently next time?

Was there a particular sticking point, breakdown in your logic or conceptual knowledge, bad habit, or careless mistake that led you to the wrong answer? At what point in your process did that error occur?

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