سوال ۳ کنکور ارشد مهندسی مکانیک ۱۴۰۴
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 decisive clue: the verb ease
To ease a feeling means to relieve / lessen it — you only "ease" something unpleasant (pain, anxiety, guilt, worry). So the blank must be an adjective describing a negative emotion.
The second clue is the phrase "for leaving the children in someone else's care". The preposition for + gerund names the reason one feels bad, the classic frame of guilt:
guilty for/about doing something
Put together, the sentence says the elaborate food lists are a way for parents to relieve the guilt they feel about leaving their children with a babysitter.
Why the other three fail
| Option | Meaning | Why it doesn't fit |
|---|---|---|
| 1) affectionate | loving, warm | A positive feeling — you don't ease affection, and it gives no reason to be "for leaving the children". |
| 2) misguided | mistaken, based on bad judgement | Describes a judgement/action, not an emotion one relieves; "ease a misguided feeling" is not idiomatic. |
| 3) undisturbed | calm, untroubled | Already a calm state — there is nothing to ease. Self-contradictory with ease. |
| 4) guilty ✅ | feeling bad about a wrong or a neglected duty | Collocates with both ease and for leaving …. |
Answer: option 4 — a guilty (feeling).
Exam trick: In vocabulary completions, the verb in front of the blank fixes the polarity of the missing word. ease / relieve / alleviate / assuage / soothe all take a negative noun phrase (guilt, pain, fear, tension); foster / nurture / arouse take a different set. Match polarity first and half the options disappear before you even weigh their exact meanings.
Pitfall: The a/an split (options 1 and 3 take an, options 2 and 4 take a) is not a shortcut here — both a misguided and a guilty are grammatically fine, so the choice has to be made on meaning.