My dual mandate is to help my APUSH and SAT students prepare for their upcoming tests. Today’s post will define and illustrate ATTENUATE.
APUSH
Following the Civil War, the Radical Republicans in Congress enacted aggressive policies designed to reconstruct the Southern states and protect the rights of newly freed African slaves. However, sympathy for the freedmen began to ATTENUATE as Radical Republicans died or left office. A new generation of “politicos” began to focus their attention on Western expansion, Indian wars, and the construction of transcontinental railroads. A short but severe business panic in 1873 further ATTENUATED public support for Reconstruction.
SAT
ATTENUATE has frequently appeared as a wrong answer on SAT vocabulary in context questions. But it can be a correct answer! For example, a recent passage focused on the efforts of museums to create life-size replicas of extinct prehistoric animals and megafauna. These detailed recreations can actually ATTENUATE
the overall impact of an exhibit’s effect on viewers by focusing their attention on a display’s artificial elements instead of its intended message about prehistoric life.
Many confused students chose ACCENTUATE instead of ATTENUATE. The two words are antonyms. ATTENUATE means to weaken and diminish. In contrast, ACCENTUATE means to emphasize and strengthen.
ATTENUATE – to weaken, reduce or diminish
ACCENTUATE – to emphasize or highlight