2012-06-27 09:00:44

Though President Truman knew the atomic bombs were likely to ______ Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is unlikely he knew how long the devastating effects of the bombs would last.

(A) ameliorate
(B) alter
(C) bolster
(D) collate
(E) decimate



The correct answer is E

Explanation: To predict the missing word, look for keywords in the sentence. Here, the most important word is "devastating," which describes the effects of the bombs. The missing word likewise describes what the bombs did, meaning the missing word must relate to "devastating." "Decimate" means "to destroy a large percentage of something," so choice (E) is correct.

None of the other choices work, either:

ameliorate: to improve or make something bad better (this is the opposite of what a bomb would do to a city)

alter: to modify (this is not extreme enough to work in context; modifying something would only change it, not have "devastating effects" on it)

bolster: to strengthen or reinforce (this is the opposite of what a bomb would do to a city)

collate: to collect and combine in proper order (this has no relationship to the "devastating effects" of a bomb)