Because AI cannot be snowed under this word.
| keep your head above water | manage to survive/cope despite difficulty — no article before water |
| to surge | move with great strength (water, a river — or a crowd) |
| to trickle (down) | move slowly, a little at a time |
| trickle-down effect / economy | hyphenated compound adjective from the phrasal verb trickle down |
| to water sth down | soften or dilute it — cut the parts that might offend |
| a wet blanket | someone who spoils other people's fun |
| a party pooper | someone who ruins the fun for everyone else (= wet blanket) |
| to pour sth out | express feelings intensely and at length |
| to gush | flow out suddenly and in large quantities |
| flooded (with spam/pictures) | overwhelmed by a large quantity of something |
| to exacerbate sth | make something bad or worse |
| to aggravate sth | make something bad or worse (= exacerbate) |
| to engender sth | cause, bring about (formal) — engendered by |
| to alleviate sth | reduce a bad feeling or situation |
| to mitigate sth | reduce something bad, especially risk, danger or disease |
| to ease sth | reduce, make less intense — no article before the plural noun |
| to elevate sth | raise or increase something — not a synonym for alleviate |
| to strengthen bonds | make relationships/ties stronger |
| to boost morale | increase confidence, spirit, or general enthusiasm |
Failed: keep your head above water — the idiom for surviving despite hardship, explained almost entirely by the teacher before it landed, a wet blanket / a party pooper — a person who spoils everyone's fun; neither known, flooded with spam — tried to calque a Ukrainian word as "fluid", rejected as no direct equivalent
Needed prompting: surge vs trickle — water moving with great strength vs slowly; mispronounced trickle as "tickle" at first, trickle-down effect — the hyphenated adjective form, needed the rule explained twice, to gush — blood flowing out suddenly, got there after a garbled first guess, to exacerbate — make something worse (formal), needed several tries before landing on the right direction, to engender — cause distrust (formal); first heard/said as "destruct" instead of distrust, to alleviate — reduce boredom/stress/financial debt; repeatedly reached for elevate instead, to mitigate — self-produced, teacher flagged it's more about risk/disease than everyday stress, to ease stress levels — word was right, an article was added where none was needed
| ✗ | ✓ |
|---|---|
| "destruct" (for distrust) | distrust |
| tickle down | trickle down |
| trickle down down (unclear hyphenation) | trickle-down effect/economy |
| elevate boredom | alleviate boredom |
| flooded with "fluid" (Ukrainian calque) | flooded with spam — no direct English equivalent |
| ease the stress level(s) | ease stress levels (no article) |