Crafting Vocabulary and Sentence Variety: Question 6
Syllabus W3
Read the sentence below, which has a gap where an adjective has been removed.
"Even after three separate rejections, Priya kept revising her application. Her manager praised her as ______, insisting it was the reason she would eventually succeed."
Which option is the most appropriate word for the gap, given that the manager is offering genuine praise for Priya's persistence?
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Worked solution
Assessment focus
This tests whether a candidate can look past the shared dictionary meaning (“denotation”) of several similar words and select the one whose emotional colouring (“connotation”) actually fits the sentence’s tone, here, genuine praise for persistence.
Why C is correct
“Determined” shares the same core meaning as the other three options, someone who keeps trying and does not give up, but, unlike them, it carries a positive, admiring connotation. That matches a manager who is praising Priya and crediting her persistence for her eventual success.
Why the distractors are wrong
- A (obstinate) describes the same behaviour but with a disapproving connotation, as if the person is being unreasonably inflexible, the opposite tone to genuine praise.
- B (pig-headed) is an informal, strongly negative word for stubbornness, entirely unsuited to a sentence expressing admiration.
- D (stubborn) sits between the two: it is usually mildly critical rather than complimentary, so it does not fit a sentence that is meant to sound like praise as precisely as “determined” does.
Mark scheme
- 1 mark for selecting C.
- 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.