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Difficulty: MediumLeveraging Secondary and Obscure Word Definitions

During periods of severe drought and resource scarcity, the municipality advised municipal managers to carefully husband the remaining water reserves to ensure essential services remained operational throughout the dry season. Which of the following words is closest in meaning to 'husband' as used in the sentence above?

  1. A
    marry
  2. conserveAnswer
  3. C
    squander
  4. D
    irrigate
  5. E
    evaluate

Answer

The word 'husband' in this context means 'conserve' or to manage prudently and frugally.
The sentence describes a situation of resource scarcity where water must be saved and managed carefully to last through a drought. As a verb, 'husband' secondary definition means to manage or use resources prudently and frugally, making 'conserve' the exact match.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the contextual clues in the sentence stem.
Phrases like 'severe drought', 'resource scarcity', and 'ensure essential services remained operational' indicate a need to save and manage water carefully.
Contextual signals dictate the intended meaning when dealing with polysemous words.
2
Identify the secondary definition of the target word 'husband'.
As a transitive verb, 'husband' means to manage economically, conserve, or use frugally.
Standard high-frequency GRE vocabulary questions test secondary or less common definitions of familiar words.
3
Select the option that matches the secondary definition.
The word 'conserve' directly matches the meaning of managing water reserves sparingly.
'Conserve' preserves both the semantic meaning and contextual logic of the sentence.

Key Concept

Secondary Word Meanings in Context
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Leveraging Secondary and Obscure Word Definitions

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