AR15J wrote:
Thanks Carcass for quick reply.. I will follow the tags rule for the following posts.
I got this question during manhattan mock.
The answer is egregious and belie.
I understand why belie is correct.
The explanation given for egregious is as follows. However, I don't agree with the explanation as critics can be positive, however rarely. Please help
The clue phrase here is merely the word "critics," which lets us know that the first blank needs a negative filler, such as "bad."
(A) CORRECT. Egregious, meaning "outstandingly bad," has the correct (negative) spin.
(B) Trenchant, meaning "vigorous or incisive in expression or style," has a positive spin, and so is the opposite of what we want.
(C) Unimpeachable, meaning "not to be doubted or criticized," is the opposite of what we want.
Really have a hard time to figure out A as the answer. Even because egregious means also excellent not only extraordinary bad. It means also the opposite.
Moreover, here
http://same-word.com/default.asp there is not a synonym of egregious as bad.
On top of that, the phrase is ambiguous in the sense that it could have a meaning from positive to negative or the other way around. This in my experience never take place to Official Questions.
You can say this: the mayor's actions are negative but the facts say exactly the contrary.
But reading on the flip side-: the mayor's actions are positive but the facts say they are negative. And still on the second blank belie fits the bill the same way.
Bottom line: the official material is the holy grail. Period.
regards