What is the meaning of the word “denounce” from the same passage?

Question

“In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony. One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it.”

 

What is the meaning of the word “denounce” from the same passage? (the answer should be like , ex : To declare as wrong or evil/To listen to/To irritate or anger/To support)

Answer 1

Okay, let's look at our options:

1) To declare as wrong or evil

2) To listen to

3) To irritate or anger

4) To support

Now let's look at the word in context:

"You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it.”

Well, we know what fight means. Disarm means to basically means to take weapons away from someone/something, but even if we don't know that, we can guess it has something to do with fighting. Therefore, the word "denounce" must have something to do with fighting.

"To declare as wrong or evil" works, because if you're fighting you presumably think your opponent is wrong. "To listen to" doesn't make much sense, as it doesn't have anything to do with fighting. "To irritate or anger" MIGHT work, so we'll leave it for now. "To support" definitely doesn't fit, because it is the opposite of "to fight."

So does denounce mean "to irritate" or "to declare as wrong or evil?" Let's look at the paragraph as a whole. The author talks about hatred, suffering, and injustice. The sentence before the "You (verb) it" section talks about hatred in particular. Well, we can't IRRITATE hatred, although we can certainly be irritated by it. Therefore, the answer must be "to declare as wrong or evil."