ShmoopTube

00:04

This question has come down with an acute case of Shmoopitis...

00:08

Which word could fill in the blank so that the sentence below makes sense?

00:12

Andrew surreptitiously held the thermometer up to the light and then coughed dramatically

00:18

in front of his parents, blank illness in an attempt to stay home from school.

00:22

And here are the potential answers...

00:30

The context of his sentence makes it clear that we're looking for a word that gets

00:30

The context of his sentence makes it clear that we’re looking for a word that gets

00:33

across the idea that Andrew is pretending to be sick.

00:37

"Grasping" doesn't make any sense at all.

00:39

How exactly would Andrew grasp illness itself?

00:42

Nah, moving on.

00:43

"Causing" would get across the idea that Andrew actually got sick from all his shenanigans.

00:48

"Approximating" is kind of tempting, because

00:50

it means to render something in a way that's... close to something else.

00:54

It doesn't literally mean to fake something, though, so it doesn't do justice to Andrew's

00:59

elaborate ruse or deception.

01:00

"Effecting" is used when something causes a change in something else.

01:06

However, the very similar sounding word, "affecting," can be used to describe when someone is pretending.

01:12

Sorry, choice (A)...

01:13

We're just not fooled. Only "feigning" literally means to fake something,

01:18

so (D) is the correct answer.

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