Question

Nelson's hobby is tinkering with small appliances. Tinkering with implies that Nelson is unskilled at his hobby. You want to change the flavor of this sentence to show that Nelson is, in fact, quite skilled at his hobby. Which of the following should you choose to replace tinkering with so that the reader gets the right idea?
a. Repairing
b. Fiddling with
c. Selling
d. Messing with

Answer 1

The answer would be a. Repairing, because "fiddling with" implies the same thing as "tinkering with" does, "selling" completely changes the meaning of the sentence, and "messing with" implies that he is even less skilled than "tinkering with" implies. Repairing things almost always takes skill.

Answer 2

The correct answer is B.To tinker with is the same as to fiddle with which means to handle something casually