Verbs that come with good things, when they genuinely fit, and when the plainer verb is better.
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The same error running the other way. Sort before you read the explanation — again.
The reforms fostered widespread inequality.
Grammar: fine. Collocation: foster takes an abstract noun, and inequality is one. Meaning: perfectly clear — the reforms made inequality worse.
And most native readers will stop on it.
It is the same failure as he committed a generous act, running in the opposite direction. Last sprint, a positive object after a negatively charged verb. This time, a negative object after a positively charged one.
Twenty-four objects, three verbs, one box for the leftovers. Sort first, read second.
Sort each item into the correct category
Why this lean is real but not absolute, and the density limit that catches strong candidates.
These six verbs prefer objects the writer regards as good. But unlike last sprint's set, the preference is a strong tendency rather than a hard prohibition, and it would be dishonest to teach you otherwise.
Foster resentment, foster dependency, cultivate a grievance, instil fear — all of these are attested, and a good writer uses them deliberately. The negative object is felt as a small shock, and the shock is the effect: the writer is saying this was tended and encouraged, like a garden, and look what grew.
Because an examiner cannot tell your irony from your error.
A writer who produces the reforms fostered inequality on purpose is being pointed. A candidate who produces it because they were reaching for a Band 8 verb has made a word-choice error. The sentence is identical. Under timed conditions, with no other evidence of your intent on the page, it will be read as the second one.
So the rule for production is simple, and narrower than the truth: keep these verbs for objects you approve of. The ironic use is a tool for writers with time to establish a voice. You have forty minutes.
Polarity is not enough. Each of these six wants a particular kind of object — match the verb to the kind.
Terms
Definitions
Six extracts. Some have the wrong object, some have too many charged verbs, and some are simply correct.
Two different faults are possible in this set: the wrong object, and too many charged verbs. Some extracts have neither.
In three of the six, the plain verb is the right answer — once on accuracy grounds and twice on density grounds. Density is the one candidates never check.
"Two decades of underinvestment fostered a growing shortage of qualified teachers." What is the problem?
Three chains. One turns on polarity, one on object class, and one on how many charged verbs the paragraph has already spent.
Chain 1
The sentence to complete: Regular joint training ______ a level of trust that neither agency had managed alone.
Candidates: fostered / produced
Step 1 — Is the object the polarity and the kind that the charged verb wants?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: Regular joint training a level of trust neither agency had managed alone.
Chain 2
The sentence to complete: A national mentoring scheme would ______ the ambition of students whose schools cannot support it.
Candidates: nurture / foster
Step 1 — Both are positively charged. What decides between them here?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: A national mentoring scheme would the ambition of those students.
Chain 3
Your paragraph already reads: Sustained public investment has fostered a research culture that attracts private funding. You now need one more sentence, and you want to say that the country is getting a return on it.
Candidates: reap / see
Step 1 — Is anything inaccurate about the charged verb here, and if not, what is the objection?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: Countries that invested early are now beginning to the returns.