Question 1

The city council implemented a new synchronized traffic light system in the downtown district to _____ the heavy congestion reported during morning commutes. Early data suggests that the improved flow has significantly reduced the time drivers spend idling at intersections.

• A propagate
• B exacerbate
• C alleviate
• D surmount

🔒 Answer question 1 to unlock

The city's comprehensive water filtration initiative was launched to _____ the lead contamination crisis, which had plagued the aging infrastructure for nearly a decade.

• A ameliorate
• B alleviate
• C exacerbate
• D mitigate

🔒 Answer question 2 to unlock

Among the hundreds of exoplanets cataloged during the survey, one stood out as particularly _____: its orbital period was inconsistent with the gravitational models applied to every other body in the system, and no known interaction with neighboring planets could account for the irregularity.

• A aberrant
• B inexplicable
• C anomalous
• D idiosyncratic

🔒 Answer question 3 to unlock

The historical record on minimum wage increases has long been considered _____ by labor economists: studies from different regions and time periods have reached conflicting conclusions, making it genuinely difficult to assert that higher wages either reliably create or reliably eliminate significant numbers of jobs.

• A cogent
• B ambiguous
• C inexplicable
• D equivocal

🔒 Answer question 4 to unlock

In an era when many outlets prioritized sensational headlines to maximize online engagement, the editor made a deliberate decision to _____ clickbait entirely, instructing her staff to write headlines that accurately described the reporting even when a more dramatic framing would likely attract more readers.

• A embrace
• B eschew
• C avoid
• D adopt

🔒 Answer question 5 to unlock

The subjects in the control group continued to _____ a strong preference for immediate rewards even after extended exposure to financial literacy modules, suggesting that awareness of delayed gratification as a concept does not necessarily translate into changed real-world decision-making behavior.

• A evince
• B exacerbate
• C precede
• D alleviate

🔒 Answer question 6 to unlock

The introduction of the invasive species did not only threaten native wildlife directly; it also altered the chemical composition of the soil in ways that served to _____ the existing drought conditions, further reducing the ecosystem's already diminished capacity for natural recovery.

• A exacerbate
• B intensify
• C alleviate
• D ameliorate

🔒 Answer question 7 to unlock

When the department chair suggested that the university's eighteen standing committees had been "lovingly designed by people who truly treasured productive meetings," the graduate students recognized the remark as _____, a form of dry institutional humor favored by academics who preferred irony to direct complaint.

• A equivocal
• B anomalous
• C facetious
• D cogent

🔒 Answer question 8 to unlock

The investor's approach was widely considered _____ within the industry: he consistently bought shares in companies that had just reported public relations disasters, acting on his counterintuitive belief that reputational damage was almost always temporary while the resulting price drops created genuine and recoverable buying opportunities.

• A aberrant
• B cogent
• C anomalous
• D idiosyncratic

🔒 Answer question 9 to unlock

Despite decades of satellite observation, the localized temperature anomaly over a specific stretch of the Indian Ocean has remained _____ to the scientific community: no model incorporating known atmospheric, oceanic, or geological variables has successfully reproduced the pattern, and the phenomenon shows no signs of resolving on its own.

• A anomalous
• B ambiguous
• C equivocal
• D inexplicable