In the Caravaggio worked example, why does ETS treat 'notoriety' and 'eminence' as a register trap rather than as simple synonyms?
ABoth words are too rare to count as GRE-level vocabulary.
BBoth denote fame, but only 'eminence' reads as artistic success in formal prose.
CBoth are positive in connotation, so the trap is purely grammatical.
D'Eminence' has no relation to fame; the overlap is an illusion.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. Both denote fame, but only 'eminence' reads as artistic success in formal prose.
Notoriety and eminence overlap in denotation: both name a state of being widely known. They diverge in register, eminence is honorific and reads as success in formal prose, notoriety carries a negative tilt of disrepute. The Caravaggio sentence demands a word that follows from 'success', so eminence is the only fit. They are not synonyms, they are a register trap.
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