No, ethanol would be unsuitable for carrying out the reaction between propyne and methyllithium. The pKa of ethanol is ~16, and sodium amide is strong enough a base to readily abstract a proton from the solvent ( pKa of NH3 is ~38); in doing so, it becomes deactivated and is no longer available to react with propyne (pKa ~25). Typically, the selected solvent should be chemically inert toward all substances used in the reaction, so that it does not interfere with the desired reaction.
