The new form promised to obviate delays. (obviate: eliminate, avert, prevent) Its instructions did nothing to curb the queue. (curb: restrain, check, control) A traveler had to declare an eventuality nobody could predict, name a proxy even when traveling alone and certify the timeliness of a departure still hours away. (eventuality: contingency, possibility, possible outcome; proxy: substitute, representative, stand-in; timeliness: opportuneness, seasonableness, apt timing) Each box seemed devised to stymie the next. (stymie: thwart, obstruct, block)
The clerk asked which answers the crew actually used. Empty boxes worried an auditor, but the boat needed a head count and a destination. The overriding reason for the form was to get the right people safely across. (overriding: paramount, predominant, supreme) Checking extraneous answers was counterproductive. (extraneous: irrelevant, immaterial, unnecessary; counterproductive: self-defeating, detrimental, harmful)
For one morning the auditor stood beside the gangplank and recorded what happened. The boat left with three minutes to spare. The revised form had room for a large printed destination, an improvement that helped the auditor herself board the right ferry home.