Level H, Unit 11: Completing the Sentences

Punctilio

How can you concern yourself with the _____ of protocol when your whole world is collapsing about your ears?

Raconteur

The man was a skilled _____ whose repertory of amusing anecdotes was seemingly inexhaustible.

Euphoria

The mood of _____ brought about by our extraordinary good fortune caused us to relax our usual alertness.

Vendetta

The police investigation established that the victim was not an innocent bystander but the target of a gangland _____.

Gothic

The rugged landscape, with the severe vertical lines of the mountains in the background, lent an air of _____ gloom to the entire scene.

Dichotomy

The speakers said that they could see little hope for world peace unless something could be done to bridge the _____ between the "have" and "have-not" nations.

Consensus

Though everyone in our club agreed that we had a problem, there was no group _____ on how to solve it.

Constrict

To achieve an hourglass figure, fashionable ladies of the nineteenth century employed tight-fitting corsets to _____ their wastelines.

Apostate

When he came to the throne, Julian the _____ renounced Christianity and began a vigorous campaign to reestablish paganism as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Impasse

You cannot duck your responsibility for negotiating an agreement simply by announcing that you have reached a hopeless _____.

Sine Qua Non

Although it may be true that hard work does not guarantee success, it is certainly a(n) _____ for doing well in any endeavor.

Quagmire

As the disappointing results of the poll filtered in, the candidate sank into a(n) _____ of doubts about the future.

Parlous

Each episode in the silent-movie serial "The Perils of Pauline" ended with the heroine facing another _____ predicament.

Quixotic

Every great president must combine various roles--the practical politician, the masterful intellectual, the tough administrator, the persuasive advocate--and at least a touch of the _____ visionary.

Mystique

Hemingway's DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON offers a rare insight into the _____ of the bullring and the attitudes that surround that ancient blood sport.

Bravado

His challenge to fight was pure _____; inwardly he hoped that no one would take him on.

Metamorphosis

It took Rome centuries to achieve the miraculous _____ from a minor city-state on the banks of the Tiber to the leading power in the Mediterranean world.

Non Sequitur

Modern military power requires great industrial success, but to conclude from this that industrialized nations are inherently militaristic is a _____.

Effusive

Not until later did I realize that their _____ expressions of interest in our welfare were insincere and self-serving.

Lugubrious

One look at the coach's _____ expression, and I knew that all our misgivings about the outcome of the game had been borne out.