The government's heavy-handed attempts to suppress dissent served only to ______ existing civil unrest.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. exacerbate
- Step 1: 'Exacerbate' means to make a problem, situation, or negative feeling worse or more severe. State repression often backfires by intensifying public grievances and expanding street protests. Answer: exacerbate. Why not the others: "ameliorate tensions" means to make a bad or unpleasant situation better, improve, or alleviate; "mitigate conflicts" means to reduce the severity, seriousness, or painful impact of something; "assuage public fear" means to soothe, appease, or satisfy painful or distressed feelings.
Practise more Idiomatic Collocations and Dependent Prepositions.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed State Certificate of Language Proficiency (KPG) English mock tests.
More Idiomatic Collocations and Dependent Prepositions questions
- The university chancellor was commended for her ______ handling of the campus student protest.
- The defense attorney argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution was purely ______.
- The young diplomat was known for her remarkable ______; she could de-escalate shouting matches with gentle humor.
- The board decided to ______ the controversial restructuring plan until after the annual shareholders meeting.
- Her presentation was ______ with witty literary allusions that delighted the academic audience.
- The CEO was criticized for surrounding himself with obsequious ______ who never challenged his strategic missteps.