The CEO took full responsibility for the earnings shortfall, refusing to pass the ______ to departmental heads.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. buck
- Step 1: The idiom to 'pass the buck' means to shift responsibility, blame, or an unwelcome duty to someone else. Refusing to pass the buck demonstrates personal accountability and ethical leadership during financial adversity. Answer: buck. Why not the others: "entire corporate blame to other staff" is an explanatory paraphrase rather than the established idiomatic noun; "weight of debts away" is an unidiomatic invented phrase that violates English figurative conventions; "penalty into divisions" is unnatural literal phrasing that does not match the 'pass the buck' idiom.
Practise more Formal Registers and Precise Lexical Choice.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed State Certificate of Language Proficiency (KPG) English mock tests.
More Formal Registers and Precise Lexical Choice questions
- The scientist's theory was met with ______ from peers until empirical evidence confirmed its accuracy.
- The court ruled that the contract was ______ because one of the parties had been coerced into signing.
- The artist's early paintings were described as ______ by critics who found the colors garish and composition chaotic.
- The whistleblower revealed that the corporation's environmental pledges were merely a ______ to appease regulators.
- The judge warned the defense attorney against making ______ remarks that were irrelevant to the charges at hand.
- The new economic minister's radical tax proposals sent shockwaves through the ______ of the financial district.