Question

Instructions: Each of the following items is followed by four words or group of words. Fill in the blank with the appropriate word or group of words.

The carriage foundered in a snowdrift and it took two hours to ____ it.

• A. exert
• B. pillage
• C. exacerbate
• D. extricate

Hint:

Think about what action is needed to free something stuck in the snow.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Since this is a fill-in-the-blank verb question, it helps to substitute each option back into the sentence and read it aloud, testing which one produces a sensible complete action.

"It took two hours to exert it" - incomplete and awkward, exert always requires an object describing what force is being applied, such as exert pressure, so it cannot simply take "it."

"It took two hours to pillage it" - nonsensical, you cannot pillage a carriage, pillage applies to raiding towns or settlements.

"It took two hours to exacerbate it" - grammatically fine but logically backwards, nobody spends two hours deliberately making a stuck carriage's situation worse.

"It took two hours to extricate it" - reads naturally and makes complete sense, spending two hours to free a carriage trapped in a snowdrift is exactly the kind of task the sentence describes.

Since extricate is the only option that produces a logical, complete sentence, option D is confirmed as the answer.