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Question

Difficulty: EasyIdioms and Idiomatic Expressions

Complete the sentence below by identifying the correct word required to form the standard idiomatic expression. Which word correctly fills the blank?

Answer:When asked about the underlying cause of the project's delay, the analyst hit the 【nail】 on the head by pointing directly to the lack of funding.

Answer

nail
The correct word is 'nail' because the established idiomatic expression is 'to hit the nail on the head', which means to describe or identify a problem or situation with complete accuracy.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the overall meaning of the sentence context.
The sentence describes someone giving a precise and accurate explanation for a problem.
Context clues such as 'pointing directly to' indicate exactness and truth.
2
Recall the fixed idiomatic expression matching this context.
The standard English idiom for doing or saying something exactly right is 'to hit the nail on the head'.
Idioms are fixed lexical phrases whose core component words cannot be randomly substituted.

Key Concept

Idiomatic Expressions: Hit the nail on the head
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Topics

Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions

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