Hi There!

Let me try to help you with this. Consider there are no option choice available, and you have to fill in the blank according to what you think is correct.

Although grandiose urban railroad stations are often viewed as glorious monuments to their cities, they in fact (i) ____________ the cities by enabling the migration of city dwellers to the suburbs.


1. Find the clue: Try finding the clue, whether the sentence is supporting something or going against. Here, I see Although which, means there is a contradiction in the further part of the sentence.
2. Divide into two or more parts according to the length of the sentence: Here I have a one liner with two parts which is divided by a comma. And the although indicating that the part after the comma is not supportive of the first half.
3. Pick other verbs and adjectives which describe the first part: The author says that Although grandiose, meaning although impressive....(blah..blah)
4. Choose your word: Ignoring the words in after grandiose, I know the author is going to contradict in the further part of the sentence. So I can say, Although impressive........., they in fact are not so impressive(negative word).....

Let's move to the options:

(A) invigorate- make something bad better/ energize- Positive word- OUT
(B) enlarge- Widen- Not related- OUT
(C) enfeeble- Weaken- Hold, it is not impressive means it is weakening and enfeeble is negative. Tick on both requirement- Correct
(D) delineate- describe in detail- OUT
(E) overshadow-appear more prominent or important than- The sentence is not trying to distinguish and decide which/what is better thus, overshadow is wrong.

This is an official question, so there is no room for arguments. It's all about knowing the subtle meaning difference and finding the right clue.

Hope this helps!

Explanation

here the key word to look is the very first word Although .

This signals a contrast incoming; actually, soon we will have a shift in the second part of the sentence. So, if you do have a positive tone in the first part, then follow a negative word to fill the blank in the second part of the same.

A and B are positive word and E is out of scope. The station does not overshadow anything. looking at D could be the answer but at a close look it is still positive in its meaning. C means weaken.

C is best
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Thanks for the explanation! Structurally, it makes sense. But putting "enfeeble" in the sentence doesn't make sense to me. How can having railroads weaken the cities? I'm confused here.

What will happen if city inhabitants are moved to suburbs?

The city will lack efficiency and will weaken. Thus enfeeble fits there appropriately.

i thought overshadow makes sense because although rail road stations are viewed as glorious monuments, the rail road stations is actually more ''important'' / prominent because it enables migration? so overshadow = more prominent should work? can someone please help clarify?

Overshadow is used when something is more important than other

The rookie is overshadowed by the more experienced basketball player

Here the sense of the sentence is that: even though the railroad is great, in the end, enable the migration to the suburbs, weakening the presence in the downtown

Ask for further ASSISTANCE
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Thanks..but am still not fully certain about why overshadow doesn't work.. i thought it's trying to say that enabling migration is more important than being viewed as ''glorious monuments'' ....