سوال ۳ کنکور ارشد مهندسی برق ۱۴۰۴
PART A: Vocabulary — Choose the word or phrase (1), (2), (3), or (4) that best completes the sentence.
Reading about the extensive food directives some parents leave for their babysitters, I was wondering if these lists are meant to ease «..........» feeling for leaving the children in someone else's care.
پاسخ صحیح: گزینهٔ D — a guilty
The sentence describes parents who leave long food instruction lists for leaving the children in someone else's care — i.e. they feel bad about handing their children over. The verb ease takes a negative feeling as its object (ease the pain / ease a guilty conscience), so the blank needs an adjective naming an unpleasant emotion. guilty (feeling responsible for something wrong; a guilty feeling / a guilty conscience) is exactly that collocation: the detailed lists are a way to relieve their guilt.
- affectionate = showing fondness — a positive feeling; you would not ease it, and it gives no reason for the lists.
- misguided = based on bad judgement; it describes a belief or action, not the emotion caused by leaving one's children (a misguided attempt, not a misguided feeling for leaving...).
- undisturbed = calm, untroubled — the opposite of what needs easing; easing an untroubled feeling is self-contradictory.
Exam trick: match the adjective to the verb, not just to the noun.
ease + [negative feeling]immediately eliminates every positive or neutral option, leaving only guilty.