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According to the text, analyse the statements below: I. In...

“Rage bait” named word of the year by Oxford University Press

By Kevin Rawlinson


  1. Good news for those who find their blood pressure rising as they scroll through their online
  2. news feeds: the Oxford English Dictionary’s publisher has highlighted the term they might need
  3. to describe how they often feel, naming “rage bait” as its word of the year.
  4. ________ to the Oxford University Press’ analysis, use of the phrase has tripled in the past
  5. 12 months. It defines it as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by
  6. being frustrating, provocative or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or
  7. engagement with a particular webpage or social media content”.
  8. The president of Oxford Languages said its very existence showed how aware people were
  9. becoming of the “manipulation tactics” used to grab their attention online. “Before, the internet
  10. was focused .... grabbing our attention .... sparking curiosity .... exchange for clicks, but now
  11. we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond.
  12. It feels like the natural progression in an ongoing conversation .... what it means to be human
  13. in a tech-driven world—and the extremes of online culture”.
  14. He said that, where last year’s choice—“brain rot”—“captured the mental drain of endless
  15. scrolling, ‘rage bait’ shines a light on the content ________ engineered to spark outrage and
  16. drive clicks”.
  17. The two together, Grathwohl said, “form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks
  18. engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally ________. These
  19. words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and
  20. behaviour.”
  21. While the term is being recognised in 2025, the Oxford University Press said “rage bait”
  22. had been around since just after the turn of the century. It was “first used online in a posting
  23. on Usenet in 2002 as a way to designate a particular type of driver reaction to being flashed at
  24. by another driver requesting to pass them, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation”.



(Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/01/rage-bait-named-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-university-press – text specially adapted for this test).

According to the text, analyse the statements below:


I. In “reshaping” (l. 19), re- is a prefix meaning again, the same as in “recognize”.

II. The modal verb “might” (l. 02) expresses certainty that people will use the term “rage bait” to describe how they feel.

III. The sentence “‘rage bait’ had been around since just after the turn of the century” (l. 21-22) uses the past perfect to indicate that the term already existed before another point in the past.


Which ones are correct?


A

Only I.


B

Only II.


C

Only III.


D

Only I and III.


E

I, II and III.