ShmoopTube

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Table for two. Shmoop a l'orange.

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Which word could fill in the blank so that

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the sentence below makes sense?

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In order to make raisins, the grapes had to be blank: They were laid out in the sun until

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they were thoroughly dried out.

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And here are the potential answers...

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This one gives us the definition of our missing word in the sentence itself, so we know we're

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looking for a word that's a synonym for "dried out."

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Synonym, like same as...similar as.

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Mm, old, dried up grapes. What's not to love about nature's candy?

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We can eliminate (D) immediately because "sated" means to be satisfied...

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Which it's next to impossible to achieve on raisins alone.

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"Enervated" is something we would likely experience if we went on the raisin diet plan.

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Unless you're a squirrel or something.

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"Prevaricated"—like its similar-sounding synonym "equivocated" means to have avoided

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telling the truth...

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Which we might do with our doctor if we were ashamed of our dubious raisin diet plan.

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The prefix "pro" in "propitiated" clues us in to its meaning of having tried to gain

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favor, so we know it has nothing to do with anything.

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"Desiccated" means dehydrated or dried out, so (E) is the correct answer.

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"Dessicated"... wow... just doesn't sound that appetizing, does it?

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Whoever decided to name them "raisins" instead of "desiccated grapes"...

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...really good call there dude.

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