Do not confuse brevity with a settled feeling
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
When her housemates offered to help move a heavy desk, Elise began to evince relief by relaxing her shoulders and smiling. Earlier, she had been inarticulate about the problem, struggling to explain why the room arrangement bothered her. The terseness of her message, 'Desk needs moving,' had sounded abrupt without communicating the difficulty. Once they spoke in person, she described the blocked drawer and awkward doorway, giving her housemates information that her brief written request had left out.
Elise could evince gratitude through her expression even before finding the words she wanted to use. Being temporarily inarticulate did not mean she lacked an idea; she had trouble expressing it clearly at that moment. The terseness of her first message also did not prove annoyance, since brevity can have several causes and the text offered little context. Her housemates asked what needed changing rather than attaching a fixed interpretation to three words, and the conversation became easier to understand.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.