FILL 'ER UP VI
Credit: GAMES/World of Puzzles
September, 2016
Stephen Sniderman

Each word below can be expanded into a new one by inserting two letters. That expanded word can be expanded yet again by inserting two more letters. The letter pairs are shown below, and each one will be used only once. They may be inserted anywhere in the shorter words, but the letters stay together and in the same order. In one of the words in Puzzle 2, three letters will be inserted.

For example, given the clue

TALE     T _ _ _ _ E     T _ _ _ _ _ _ E

and the letter choices NG and RI were listed, the answer words would be

TALE   TANGLE     TRIANGLE   (taNGle - tRIangle) - 

the letters NG being inserted in TALE to form TANGLE and the letters RI being inserted in TANGLE to form TRIANGLE.

Puzzle 1
1. FOE          F _ _ _ E           F _ _ _ _ _ E
2. DIE           D _ _ _ E          D _ _ _ _ _ E
3. MOON     M _ _ _ _ N      M _ _ _ _ _ _ N
4. AM           A _ _ M            A _ _ _ _ M
5. PEST        P _ _ _ _ T        P _ _ _ _ _ _ T

OD   AR   UN   RT   SY
AC   RI   XI     LU    CI

Answers: 

1. foRTe - fortUNe
2. diODe - dioXIde
3. mARoon - mACaroon
4. aLUm - aSYlum
5. pRIest - priCIest

Puzzle 2
1. BEG       B _ _ _ G         B _ _ _ _ _ G
2. AMY      A _ _ _ Y         A _ _ _ _ _ Y
3. ME         M _ _ E            M _ _ _ _ _ E
4. SIT         S _ _ _ T          S _ _ _ _ _ T
5. DEED    D _ _ _ _D       D _ _ _ _ _ _ D

ND   AC   ME   HIN   GH
IT     NT   EN    IN      LE

Answers:

1. beINg - beNDing
2. amITy - amENity
3. mACe - macHINe
4. siGHt - sLEight
5. deNTed  - deMEnted