ShmoopTube

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Here's an unshmoopy question you'll find on an exam somewhere in life...

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Which word could fill in the blank so that the sentence below makes sense?

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True, unselfish goodness is blank: It is often difficult to find.

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And here are the potential answers...

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A colon in the sentence usually indicates the

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presence of a definition, so we know we're looking for a word that means "difficult

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to find."

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Hopefully, the right answer won't be as hard to find as "goodness."

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"Abstract" refers to something that's not concrete, so it doesn't fit the bill.

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"Tangible" doesn't work either because it means something that can be touched.

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The root word "repute" in "reputable" lets us know that it means having a good reputation.

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"Obvious" means...well, obviously you know what obvious means.

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"Elusive" means hard to capture or find, so it looks like we've found our word.

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But will we ever find all the answers we seek?

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