A words in context question with similar verbs tests whether you can name the change the text describes. Read the passage and find the clue that explains the blank, using connecting words to see how the ideas connect. A blank in a conclusion must sum up what the earlier sentences show. Then predict the missing verb in plain words and check each choice’s meaning against your prediction. Similar verbs can fit the topic but still describe a change the text never shows.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the sentence before the researchers’ conclusion. What does it say about the associations participants named?
- Hint 2
Separate the two parts joined by but. What stays the same, and what depends on the task?
- Hint 3
Predict the missing verb in plain words. Account for what happens to “some associations” and what happens to “others.”
Step-by-step
Predict and check the change
Step 1Find what the conclusion depends on
The conclusion starts with The researchers therefore proposed, so therefore tells us the missing verb must follow from the findings. What changed between formats? Participants chose the local vowel more often in childhood stories, but both pronunciations occurred in both formats. That’s a change in how often they chose each pronunciation, and the interviews help explain why.
- Step 2
Separate meanings from their importance
Do the interviews show new meanings for the pronunciations? No: The associations they named remained stable, so participants kept the same links between pronunciations and social identities. The word but turns to some associations became more pertinent to their choices as others became less so. Since pertinent means relevant, the task changed how much the associations mattered when speakers chose a pronunciation. Let’s predict made some meanings matter more and others matter less.
- Step 3
Test what each verb changes
Which verbs describe the wrong kind of change? Reassigned means assigned differently, which would change the links between pronunciations and identities. Redefined means given a new meaning, which clashes with associations that remained stable. Intensified means made stronger, but the clue says others became less so, which points to a decrease in importance. It misses the change in both directions.
- Step 4
Check the precise meaning
Reweighted means changed how much different things matter compared with each other. Used with the existing social meanings, it describes a change in how much each meaning matters when speakers choose a pronunciation, while keeping the meanings themselves unchanged. Choice D.