Identify the word that best completes the sentence: The new water desalination facility is designed to ______ the freshwater deficit in southern Jordan.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. alleviate
- Step 1: Analyze sentence context: Desalination produces fresh water to address a resource 'deficit' (shortage).
- Step 2: Evaluate vocabulary: The intended action is to make a problem less severe or relieve it.
- Step 3: Select 'alleviate', which specifically means to make pain, distress, or scarcity less severe.
Answer
alleviate.
Why not the others: 'exacerbate' means to worsen or aggravate a problem; 'propagate' means to multiply or disseminate widely; 'instigate' means to incite or provoke conflict.
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