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Suggested answer: “Penelope felt perturbed when she opened the assignment folder and learned that the professor had completely rejected her premise.”

The relationship between a student and a professor can sometimes be prickly. Often it is the fault of the professor when a nurturing relationship has failed to develop, but students also can be off-putting. Such failure to connect might explain the surprise Penelope experienced when she discovered her suggestion had been totally dismissed. She was “perturbed,” which is to say the rejection not only upset her, it worried her. Cultivating an open and healthy relationship is a plus, and to Penelope it appeared she and the instructor were seriously out of sync. Other acceptable “p” words in this instance include pressured, paralyzed, peeved, maybe even parboiled. But “perturbed” captures all the dissonance a person feels in such a tense situation.
教授和學生的關係有時不容易處理，建立關係時如果發展不順利，通常是教授的問題，但有時學生也會令人反感。本句中，或許就是因為師生交流不順利，所以 Penelop 發現教授完全拒絕她的提議時，才會這麼驚訝，覺得「perturbed」（心煩意亂）；這表示遭到否決讓她心煩又心慌。培養光明正大的良好關係對兩人都有好處，但看來 Penelope 和指導教授兩人關係非常不和睦。本句還可以填入其他「p」開頭的詞，例如 pressured（感到壓力）、paralyzed（全身無力）、peeved（氣惱），甚至 parboiled（煎熬），不過還是「perturbed」最能表達人在這種緊張關係下感受到的不融洽。