The underlined words are : "allay the discontent". To Allay means to enervate or reduce. Discontentment simply means dissatisfaction. Hence the "following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable: is "justify the gratification" (Option A). Note that this is a text of knowledge of synonyms.
<h3>What is a synonym?</h3>
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language.
For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous
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