Fun with synonyms

By OH TEIK THEAM

EACH sentence below contains a synonym of the italicised word(s), spelt out in consecutive letters. Can you spot it?

Example: The couple continued their walk along the path in silence after he commented that she was not as slim as she used to be.

1. “If you haven’t heard the story about the naughty boy whom a group of villagers hired to look after their sheep, it ended with a wolf attacking the sheep and frightening the life out of the boy.”

2. “We have more plywood in the shed, boss,” the worker stammered out his answer.

3. The trainee chef said to me, “Would you like to eat a steamed fish and tell me what you think of its flavour?”

4. “Our companies will incur big losses for the current financial year if we do not control our expenditure.”

5. “Everything is hunky-dory,” a man says to his best friend, “except for one thing: the manager’s secretary seems to persistently avoid me.”

6. With a tear-stained face, she said to him, “Why do you detest me?”

7. Fred denied that he had teased her, but I saw him blush at the mention of her name.

8. The boss of the TV station said to the producer, “We need to re-examine the contents of the show if we want to attract more viewers.”

9. We listened with great interest to his amazing story about how he met a legendary adventurer.

10. Her success in six consecutive tournaments was indeed a rare achievement, as only 10 months ago, even a single title seemed to be out of her grasp.

11. “Post all your notices on this side of the booth.”

12. I had bought a melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cake to eat while I watched the football match on TV, but the game turned out to be dull.

13. The boa stopped by his friend’s place just to brag, “I squeezed two big animals to death this morning.”

14. The overnight rain brought further delays in its wake.

15. This up-and-coming tennis star is ingenious, amiable and unpretentious.

Answers

1. tend 2. reply 3. taste 4. curb 5. shun 6. hate 7. redden 8. review 9. tale 10. reach 11. stall 12. tame 13. boast 14. train 15. rising