Question

"She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present."

"She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's." Using context clues, which of the following best describes the term "meretricious" from the selection?

A. exceptional B. superficial C. humble D. adequate

Answer 1

B. Superficial

Step-by-step explanation:

The defenition of meretricious is:

"apparently attractive but in reality having no value or integrity."

The defenition of superficial is:

"apparent rather than real."

Answer 2

The word that best describes the term "meretricious" from the selection is superficial.

Step-by-step explanation:

The excerpt shows how she wants the present for Jim to be something more than a superficial thing that exists just to look good, then the use of the word meretricious communicates this idea, the sentence "properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation" expresses that this object has more value than what it can be seen by the eye, it is not just appearances.