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It was the best of questions; it was the worst of questions...

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Which word could fill in the blank so that the sentence below makes sense?

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The act of blank doesn't necessarily involve saying something untrue: It can consist simply

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of withholding information.

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And here are the potential answers...

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This sentence tries to fool us with its whole

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"doesn't necessarily involve" shtick, but it can't hide the definition of our missing word.

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No matter what it tells us, we know we're looking for an answer choice that means "saying

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something untrue." It isn't hard to get rid of (A) and (E),

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because "speaking" and "communicating" are both way too neutral.

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We can cross out (C) because "guessing" doesn't have much to do with not being untruthful.

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Someone might get a little loose with the truth when they exaggerate...

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But "exaggerating" doesn't jibe with "withholding the truth."

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(D) is the right answer, because a person is "lying" when they're saying something is untrue.

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