To "pardon" someone means to forgive them, to excuse behavior. To provide further help, "remedy" means fix, solution, solve; "quake" means tremor, shake.

To "assist" simply means to help perform a task. Think about the word "assistant." What do assistants do? They help someone else with a job that requires multiple people! "Help" is clearly the correct choice here. To "scold" is to yell at or reprimand, which is not the same as helping someone. To "pressure" is to exert force, and to "forewarn" is to tell someone about a potentially dangerous event that is about to happen. Neither of those choices have the same meaning as the word "assist."

When we "express" a thought, we attempt to communicate it in words as well as in bodily movements. An "expressive song" is one that has the power of communicating a message powerfully. An "expression" is a series of words communicating some kind of meaning. Thus, the best option for "express" is "communicate," for this alone focuses on the idea of making known some sort of message.

The word "acknowledge" clearly has a root of "knowledge" in it. It has to do with showing your awareness of something or someone. For example, "acknowledging a person's dignity," means, "recognizing his or her dignity." It can also mean merely to admit, as when we say, "I acknowledged that I broke the glass." This means that you admit that you broke it.

"Preoccupy" is a verb that is used of a matter or subject and means "dominate or engross the mind of (someone) to the exclusion of other thoughts." So, we need to pick out a verb that means something like "engross." That means that "forget" cannot be the correct answer, because if someone forgets something, that means that it cannot preoccupy their thoughts. "Absorb," however, is a verb that means "absorb all the attention or interest of," and because "absorb" is the answer choice closest in meaning to "preoccupy," "engross" is the correct answer.

"Baffle" means confuse, so "confuse" is the correct answer.

"Exult" means show or feel extreme happiness. "Rejoice" is the word choice that most closely matches this definition. "Despair" is the opposite of "exult," and "excavate," which means dig up, and "plan" are unrelated.

"Oblige" is a verb that means either "make (someone) legally or morally bound to an action or course of action" or "do as (someone) asks or desires in order to help or please them." So, we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "make someone legally or morally bound to an action" or "do as someone wants." "Oppose," then, cannot be the correct answer, because "oppose" means "actively resist or refuse to comply with (a person or a system)," making "oppose" an antonym of "oblige," not a synonym. "Compel," however, is a verb that means "force or oblige (someone) to do something," and because "compel" is the answer choice closest in meaning to "oblige," "compel" is the correct answer.

Whenever we "scold"someone, we rebuke him or her for doing something bad. For example, you could say, "The mother scolded her daughter for kicking her brother." The only option that expresses this idea of rebuking is "reprimand."

The word "perplex" means to confuse. "Perplex" is the best choice because it is a synonym of "confuse." Considering the other choices, "combine" means to put together, "ambiguous" means uncertain or having many meanings, and "fickle" means frequently changing or inconstant.