Sentence improvement — Replace the verb for natural collocation in ‘‘The dissidents hold a great problem in every political party.’’ so the sentence reads idiomatically in political commentary.

Difficulty: Easy

Correct Answer: cause

Explanation:


Given sentence
The dissidents hold a great problem in every political party.


Concept/Approach
English uses specific verb–noun collocations: people cause or pose problems; they do not ‘‘hold’’ a problem. We select a replacement that keeps the meaning while fixing the collocation.


Option analysis
A: cause — Correct collocation: ‘‘dissidents cause a great problem...’’B: give — ‘‘give a problem’’ is nonstandard.C: pose — Also idiomatic (‘‘pose a problem’’) but the keyed best answer here is ‘‘cause’’.D: No improvement — Leaves the wrong verb ‘‘hold’’.


Common pitfalls
Transferring verbs literally from other languages or using semantically loose verbs (‘‘hold’’) instead of idiomatic English choices.


Final Answer
cause

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