The judge told that he would analyze the evidence and then <u>deliver</u> the verdict.
- (a)liberate
- (b)surrender
- (c)transfer
- (d)pronounce
Correct — D, 'pronounce'. 'Deliver a verdict' means to announce a decision formally, and 'pronounce' is the verb English keeps for exactly that act — a judge pronounces the verdict, pronounces sentence, pronounces a couple married.
- (a)liberate — This picks up the 'set free' sense of deliver, as in 'deliver us from evil'; a verdict cannot be set free.
- (b)surrender — This is the 'deliver up' sense, handing something over to an authority or an enemy, which does not fit an announcement made from the bench.
- (c)transfer — This is the courier's sense of deliver — moving goods from one place to another — and a verdict is stated, not carried.
'Deliver' has several senses, and the noun that follows decides which one is meant; with a verdict, a speech or a judgement it means to utter formally.
Every wrong option is a real sense of 'deliver', which is what makes the item worth a moment's care — the test is not what the verb can mean but what it means beside this noun. The stem also prints 'The judge told that…', where standard English needs 'said that' or 'told the court that', and it prints the American spelling 'analyze' where the rest of the paper uses British forms; neither touches the answer.
- A judge pronounces judgement, a speaker delivers a lecture and a postman delivers letters — the same verb in different company.
- 'Pronounce' also means to say a word with a particular sound, which is where 'pronunciation' comes from.
- 'Deliverance' preserves the rescue sense of the verb.
- Choosing 'liberate' from the rescue sense of deliver.
- Choosing 'transfer' from the parcel sense of deliver.
Asked as a synonym item — choose the word closest in meaning to the underlined word.
The United Nations had ________ 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health.
- (a) ruled
- (b) ordered
- (c) foretold
- (d) declared
Answer(d) declared
A companion collocation item: that paper asked which verb goes with a formal public announcement and marked 'declared', while this one asks which verb 'deliver' amounts to when it stands beside 'the verdict'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word closest in meaning to 'deliver' in 'She will deliver the keynote address.'
- (a)rescue
- (b)present
- (c)carry
- (d)postpone
Answer(b) present — an address is delivered in the sense of being given aloud.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the verb that fits — The judge ______ sentence after hearing both sides.
- (a)whispered
- (b)pronounced
- (c)transferred
- (d)liberated
Answer(b) pronounced — sentence is pronounced, which is the formal-announcement sense.