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Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising,
[#permalink]
24 Feb 2026, 01:18
24 Feb 2026, 01:18
Expert Reply
00:00
Question Stats:
56% (01:10) correct
43% (01:26) wrong based on 16 sessions
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Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising, especially over the Christmas period, can actually drive down the volume of donations as people who view images of maltreated pets more than a few times rapidly become _______ .
| Two Answers |
|---|
| A. inured |
| B. miserly |
| C. disgusted | D. hardened | E. bored |
| F. overwrought |
- Part of the project: GRE Hard and Tricky Verbal Practice: NEW Questions Daily
- Also replying to the unanswered questions
Re: Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising,
[#permalink]
01 Mar 2026, 23:34
01 Mar 2026, 23:34
Expert Reply
The Logic: The "Desensitization" Effect
The sentence describes a psychological phenomenon where the initial emotional impact of a stimulus fades with repetition.
- The Cause: People view images of "maltreated pets" many times ("more than a few times").
- The Result: They stop donating (volume of donations is "driven down").
- The Reason: Repeated exposure to distressing images often leads to a "numbing" effect where the viewer no longer feels the emotional "pull" to help.
- The Goal: We need two synonyms that mean accustomed to something unpleasant or emotionally toughened.
The Correct Answers:
A. inured
D. hardened
- Why they work:
- Inured means to accustom someone to something, especially something unpleasant. If you are inured to the sight of suffering, it no longer moves you to action.
- Hardened means to become tough, insensitive, or cold. A "hardened" viewer is no longer susceptible to the emotional appeal of the advertisement.
- Both words accurately describe the specific psychological state of being "numb" to repeated stimuli.
Why the others fail:
- B. miserly: This means stingy or greedy with money. While they are donating less, the sentence explains why their feelings changed (due to the ads), not that they became inherently greedy people.
- C. disgusted: If people were disgusted, they might turn away, but "disgusted" doesn't capture the specific "repeated exposure" logic as well as "inured" does.
- E. bored: While they might be tired of the ads, "bored" is too trivial and "light" a word for the context of animal maltreatment and charity.
- F. overwrought: This means deeply agitated or over-excited. If people were overwrought, they would be having an extreme emotional reaction, which would typically drive donations up out of urgency, not down.
Final Completed Sentence
Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising, especially over the Christmas period, can actually drive down the volume of donations as people who view images of maltreated pets more than a few times rapidly become inured / hardened.
The sentence describes a psychological phenomenon where the initial emotional impact of a stimulus fades with repetition.
- The Cause: People view images of "maltreated pets" many times ("more than a few times").
- The Result: They stop donating (volume of donations is "driven down").
- The Reason: Repeated exposure to distressing images often leads to a "numbing" effect where the viewer no longer feels the emotional "pull" to help.
- The Goal: We need two synonyms that mean accustomed to something unpleasant or emotionally toughened.
The Correct Answers:
A. inured
D. hardened
- Why they work:
- Inured means to accustom someone to something, especially something unpleasant. If you are inured to the sight of suffering, it no longer moves you to action.
- Hardened means to become tough, insensitive, or cold. A "hardened" viewer is no longer susceptible to the emotional appeal of the advertisement.
- Both words accurately describe the specific psychological state of being "numb" to repeated stimuli.
Why the others fail:
- B. miserly: This means stingy or greedy with money. While they are donating less, the sentence explains why their feelings changed (due to the ads), not that they became inherently greedy people.
- C. disgusted: If people were disgusted, they might turn away, but "disgusted" doesn't capture the specific "repeated exposure" logic as well as "inured" does.
- E. bored: While they might be tired of the ads, "bored" is too trivial and "light" a word for the context of animal maltreatment and charity.
- F. overwrought: This means deeply agitated or over-excited. If people were overwrought, they would be having an extreme emotional reaction, which would typically drive donations up out of urgency, not down.
Final Completed Sentence
Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising, especially over the Christmas period, can actually drive down the volume of donations as people who view images of maltreated pets more than a few times rapidly become inured / hardened.
gmatclubot
Re: Animal welfare charities have found that extensive advertising, [#permalink]
01 Mar 2026, 23:34
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