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Question

Difficulty: HardAdjective and Adverb Usage

In the sentence 'The newly appointed director looked skeptical at the ambitious proposal, questioning the feasibility of the projected timeline,' the underlined word 'skeptical' is used correctly.

Answer: Answer

Answer

The statement is false because 'skeptical' is an adjective, but the action verb phrase 'looked at' requires the adverb 'skeptically' to modify it.
The correct answer is false because the adjective 'skeptical' is incorrectly used to modify the action verb phrase 'looked at,' which requires the adverb 'skeptically.'

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the syntactic role of the underlined word and the verb it modifies.
The word 'skeptical' is an adjective trying to modify the verb 'looked' in the phrase 'looked... at.'
To determine correctness, we must analyze whether the verb requires an adjective or an adverb.
2
Determine if the verb functions as a linking verb or an action verb in this specific context.
Because it is followed by the preposition 'at' and has a direct object ('proposal'), 'looked' is an action verb representing the physical act of looking.
Linking verbs (meaning 'seemed' or 'appeared') take adjectives, whereas action verbs require adverbs.
3
Apply the appropriate modifier rule to the sentence.
The action verb phrase 'looked at' must be modified by the adverb 'skeptically' instead of the adjective 'skeptical.' Therefore, the usage is incorrect and the statement is false.
This completes the evaluation of the statement's truth value.

Key Concept

Adjective and Adverb Usage
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Topics

Adjective and Adverb Usage

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