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Difficulty: MediumAdjective and Adverb Usage

A student is revising a draft about a recent engineering project. To ensure the sentence uses correct adjective and adverb forms, which words should fill the blanks to correctly modify the words in parentheses?

Answer:Although the project seemed 【impossibly】 (impossible) complex, the engineers resolved the issues 【more quickly】 (quick) than their supervisors expected.

Answer

impossibly for the first blank, and more quickly for the second blank
For the first blank, 'impossibly' is the adverbial form needed to modify the adjective 'complex'. For the second blank, 'more quickly' is the comparative adverbial form needed to modify the verb 'resolved' in a comparison introduced by 'than'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the correct modifier form for the first blank.
The word must modify the adjective 'complex', so it must be the adverb 'impossibly'.
Adverbs, not adjectives, are used to modify other adjectives.
2
Determine the correct modifier form for the second blank.
The word must modify the verb 'resolved', so it must be the adverbial form 'quickly'.
Adverbs are required to modify verbs.
3
Apply the comparative rules to the second blank.
Since the sentence compares two actions using 'than', we use the comparative adverb 'more quickly'.
Comparative adverbs are used when comparing two actions or states.

Key Concept

Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns, while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. When comparing actions, use comparative adverbs.
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Topics

Adjective and Adverb Usage

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