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Difficulty: MediumVocabulary and Word Meaning in Context

Read the following sentence carefully:

"Given the acute scarcity of foreign exchange and escalating operational costs, the board advised the chief executive to husband the company's limited financial resources until market conditions improved."

In the context of the sentence above, what is the meaning of the word husband?

  1. A
    marry a spouse to secure additional capital
  2. manage and conserve frugallyAnswer
  3. C
    invest aggressively in high-risk ventures
  4. D
    surrender corporate assets to creditors

Answer

manage and conserve frugally
In formal and business registers, the verb 'husband' means to manage, conserve, or use resources with frugality and care. The surrounding text emphasizes scarce foreign exchange and rising costs, reinforcing the necessity of prudent financial management.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the grammatical role of the target word
The word 'husband' follows the infinitive marker 'to' ('to husband'), establishing that it functions as a verb rather than a noun.
Identifying part of speech prevents confusing the common noun definition with the action being performed.
2
Examine surrounding contextual clues
The sentence mentions 'acute scarcity of foreign exchange', 'escalating operational costs', and 'limited financial resources'.
Contextual clues involving scarcity and high costs indicate a need for careful preservation and management of money.
3
Substitute the contextual definition into the sentence
Replacing 'husband' with 'manage and conserve frugally' maintains both grammatical structure and semantic sense.
A valid contextual synonym must seamlessly preserve the intended meaning of the original sentence.

Key Concept

Contextual Word Meaning
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Topics

Vocabulary and Word Meaning in Context

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