Question

Fill in the blanks with the right choice of words.
Elinor _____ to counteract her negative feelings, but only succeed in ______ them.
(a)Tried – allaying
(b)Hoped – Mitigating
(c)Desired – Ameliorating
(d)Hesitated – Deprecating
(e)Endeavoured – Intensifying

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence carefully. Try to make out the core meaning of it. Find out the subject, predicate and the object of the given sentence.

Complete answer: The given sentence is a contrary sentence. The speaker is conveying that “Elinor” tried to do something and ended up doing something else, which is completely opposite to that of what he initially preferred to do. There are two blanks we need to fill in with two different words.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct option :
(a)Tried – allaying. The word ‘tried’ is in the past and past participle of ‘try’. The other word ‘allaying’ is a verb which means to diminish to make something strong. It cannot be the correct option.
(b)Hoped – mitigating. ‘Hope’ is a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. The other word ‘mitigating’ is the action if reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.
(c)Desired – Ameliorating. ‘Desire’ is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. The other word ‘ameliorating’ is to make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better.
(d)Hesitated – Deprecating. ‘Hesitate' is to pause before you do something or before you take a decision, usually because you are uncertain or worried. The other word ‘deprecating’ is to express disapproval of (something).
(e) Endeavoured – Intensifying. ‘Endeavoured' is to try hard to do or achieve something. The other word ‘intensifying’ is to become or to make something greater or stronger. It can be the correct answer of the given question.
Hence, option ‘e' is the correct option.

Note:All the other options are plausible distractions. Elinor tried hard to counteract her negative feelings, but only succeeded in increasing their intensity. Thus, ‘e’ is the answer.