____ adherence to outdated political ideas and defunct sects characterized the last years of a man who had, surprisingly, been one of the most flexible thinkers of the 1920s.
Answer
Intransigent
Vacillating
Sectarian
Confused
Frantic
Dogged
Question 2
Question
The ____ effects of constant noise drove Natasha to seek refuge in a more salubrious spot until she recovered her mental equilibrium.
Answer
stimulating
debilitating
deafening
enervating
soporific
precipitating
Question 3
Question
Grandfather liked us children to learn self-discipline, and, unlike many others of his generation, seldom ____ us even for those actions that we felt deserved censure.
Answer
rewarded
consoled
upbraided
applauded
cherished
chided
Question 4
Question
To the layman, a philosopher who attempts to elucidate a complex moral dilemma by reducing it to a simple yet apparently ridiculous test case seems rather to ____ the issue.
Answer
ridicule
ofbuscate
over-simplify
denigrate
becloud
attenuate
Question 5
Question
Fraser taught by example: he ____ long-windedness in his own lectures and berated his students for any tendency toward circumlocution.
Answer
eschewed
epitomized
accentuated
embraced
welcomed
shunned
Question 6
Question
If he had not had the ____ to follow his own iconoclastic theories in the face of the apparently unassailable conclusion of the accepted experts in the field, progress would have been inestimably slower in this area of knowledge.
Answer
incentive
audacity
temerity
incapacity
unwillingness
wisdom
Question 7
Question
With an abiding interest in Medieval poetry, Boris found it difficult to relate to his peers in school whose ____ ran to nothing even remotely literary.
Answer
predilections
successes
inclinations
backgrounds
achievements
amities
Question 8
Question
The novel is admittedly not the finest example of its genre, but I object to the ____ preface written by a supposed expert on detective fiction from whom we might have expected at least one or two perceptive comments.
Answer
egregious
inane
pretentious
subliminal
vacuous
unexamined
Question 9
Question
It is not only the poor and uneducated that fall prey to ____ ; desperate or unhappy individuals from any walk of life or social background can be duped.
Answer
mavericks
malcontents
quacks
charlatans
agitators
hypochondriacs
Question 10
Question
The director, accustomed to unquestioning loyalty, was chagrined when she discovered that her directions had been ____ by the chief executive.