Although she conveyed the message calmly and without distress, Lin’s expression betrayed the message’s ______ dire nature.
i. facetious
ii. impartial
iii. puerile
iv. uncommunicative
v. dire
Dear experts, I am quoting the above examples from the book The Princeton Review: Verbal Workbook for the new GRE where they gave the answer dire. But, I’m not convinced. I think, dire would work here, if the sentence would have been ‘although she conveyed the message calmly and without distress, Lin’s expression could not betray the message’s dire nature’.
Need your help.