Answers to yesterday's word choice puzzlers:
1. I can empathize with those starving children in Ethiopia with their distended bellies.
Actually, the best I can do is sympathize. Although my belly might be distended, it is not from starvation. I could only empathize if I had experienced the same thing. Empathy is the ability to understand another's suffering as if it were one's own. To sympathize is to feel sympathy or concern for another's misfortunes.
2. Tempers flared as fans of the opposing teams streamed from the stadium, but the presence of peace officers diffused the tension.
The police officers may have diffused (disperse in every direction) the crowd, but they defused (reduce or eliminate tension or antagonism) the tension.
3. She adopted to the new schedule adapted in the office where she works.
Switch adopted and adapted. To adopt is to choose or make one's own. Adapt is to adjust to changing circumstances. The adopted child had to adapt to her new home.
4. The new office schedule was more conducive to her party habits.
The schedule may have been convenient, but it was not conducive, which means contributive, tending to cause or likely to produce.
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1 comment:
"The new office schedule was more conducive to her party habits.
The schedule may have been convenient, but it was not conducive, which means contributive, tending to cause or likely to produce."
I don't know, if she's working a 12-hour shift that ends at midnight, the long hours and stress might very well be the reason she is drinking more. Or perhaps your definition of partying is having fun. Younger people associate it with mainly drinking.
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