Based on the choices I narrowed down the answer to either banal or quotidian. I feel banal is a better synonym for uninspiring. I feel Quotidian has the following meanings daily/commonplace/common/ standard. Can you please explain why we choose Quotidian over banal as the word closest in meaning to uninspiring.
You’re correct - both quotidian and banal have very similar meanings and are good synonyms for uninspiring. The difference in nuance is that quotidian is more along the lines of frequently occurring to the extent that it’s commonplace and not worth special attention, whereas banal has the feeling of being so ordinary or simple that it’s obvious or boring.
These words are so similar that the GRE won’t test you on the difference in nuance.
Our system generates semi-random questions from a pool of vocabulary words to give more depth to the questions and ensure that you’re learning the core concepts, but sometimes that results in questions with really similar choices, like this one. I’ve just adjusted it so that the choices are more distinct!
Thanks for your feedback, and please let us know if there’s anything else you feel could be improved.