the commonly confused words test: investigation

[cimorene]

14.         It is __________ for her to __________ criticism.
difficult / accept
difficult / except
hard / accept
hard / except

i can find no evidence that there's any difference between "hard" and "difficult".  in fact, definition 2 for "hard" in the oxford concise is  "requiring or demonstrating a great deal of endurance or effort; difficult. "

17.         That painting is __________
invaluable
priceless
Either a or b
Neither a nor b

"invaluable" means "useful", not "worth lots of money".

22.         She did not want to __________ his poem for fear that it would hurt his feelings.
criticize / criticise
critique
Either a or b
Neither a nor b

"critique" means analyse, evaluate, and doesn't necessarily imply criticism; although i realise now that i answered c last time and got 100% for this section.  perhaps if the poem was bad she didn't want to critique it either.

34.         He is working __________ his Bachelor's degree, __________ she is pursuing her Master's degree.
toward / while
toward / whilst
towards / while
towards / whilst

"towards" and "whilst" are british versions.

35.         She would not __________ as to __________ stole her money.
enquire / who
enquire / whom
inquire / who
inquire / whom

Nowadays enquire and inquire are being used interchangeably. For purists, however, a useful distinction can be made between enquire, meaning to ask about something in general, and inquire, meaning to investigate something in an official capacity. When conducting an academic investigation, it seems enquire is preferred.

36.         Boat travel makes me __________.
nauseated
nauseous
Either a or b
Neither a nor b

a person becomes nauseated; the thing that made them that way is nauseous.

38.         She enjoys smelling and tasting things__ she is a __________ being.
: / sensual
: / sensuous
; / sensual
; / sensous

sensual: devoted to gratification of senses; voluptuous sensuous: characterized by images appealing to the senses.

  i can't speak to whether using those things corrected my score to 100%, though, because i kept the page open and apparently it expired in the cache; at the end it thought i had 0 in everything.

Comments

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

the nauseated/nauseous one is the one that bothers me the most when real people get them confused. it's only the knowledge that a lot of people get annoyed when corrected* that keeps my mouth shut.

*i don't understand that. sometimes, sure, it sucks to realize that you've been wrong about something, but it's much more satisfying to really know.