Under the _________ she was merely keeping the dying mogul company, Edna ________ her way into his inner circle in the hope of securing an inheritance.
For this sentence, (in the hope of) is a supporting phrase -->> securing an inheritance and … her way into his inner circle
However, for the 1st blank, I was not able to understand whether there is a support or contrast and also whether the ideas are negative or positive within the 1st part of the sentence. Can you please help me on this
You have to fill the second blank first. What are you filling B2 with to star with?
Since the phrase in the hope of acts as a supporting phrase for blank 2, so blank 2 can be she sweet talked or sneaked her way into the inner circle.
Still, I am also a bit confused for B1.
I am unable to get whether B1 will be a support or contrast.
I assume that I understood but still getting wrong answer on the quiz.
For the second blank, we need to find the support/contrast phrase. In the hope of is a supporting phrase
In terms of connotation, we have two ideas: securing an inheritance (negative). So the Blank 2 should be sth like this as you mentioned “sneak or made her way into” (negative a bit)
For Blank1:
We have only comma available, which is a supporting indicator. As the idea after the comma is somehow negative, the Blank1 should be negative as well (because keeping the dying mogul company is like positive). So, Blank1 is might be “pretense, guise”
Yep, B1 can be pretense/guise, your explanation is apt as per my understanding.
For blank we can look at from a different angle:
Instead of thinking just for a particular word to be either positive or negative we can look at as an idea.
Since she wanted to secure the inheritance (suggested by the phrase in the hope of) so to do so she must be a part of his inner circle, and since from the first part we understand that she was not caring for the dying person( suggested by merely keeping), so to get in his good books she must sneak or sweet talk to get in his inner circle.
So here understanding the idea as a whole will help instead of relying on a phrase.
Please correct me if I am wrong.