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.