Text completions

There seems to be (i)____ the practice of medicine in the U.S : while it is the duty of medical professionals to maintain the health of their patients the same professionals stand to profit more from their patients' (ii)______. Blank i a protest against; an aversion to; a paradox in Blank ii infirmity; inattentiveness; uncertainty

a paradox in; infirmity

the library wing was first conceived merely as (i)_______ to address the problem of book overstock until a more permanent solution could be found. Ironically, it was the flimsy nature of the wing itself that attracted such architectural interest and ultimately led to its canonization as a (ii)_____ of its kind. Now a statute exists to protect this originally transient structure in (iiii)________ Blank i a stopgap; an ornament; a modicum Blank ii paragon; nadir; catalyst Blank iii consecration; chronology; perpetuity

a stopgap; paragon; perpetuity

There are many good reasons to construct urban traffic lanes for cyclists: city infrastructure is already ___ under the strain of excess auto traffic, and the safety advantages of limiting road-sharing between cyclists and vehicles are all too clear. seething waiting groaning baying intensifying

groaning

Ironically, the commentator who so roundly condemned personal (i)______ was (ii)_______ to the point of bankruptcy -- he himself was a reflection of an aspect of the ills that, in other areas, he railed against. Blank I indolence; probity; dissipation Blank ii profligate; antediluvian; ascetic

dissipation; profligate

Far from the (i)______ novice that he made himself out to be, the new teacher was in fact quite (ii)____: within a week of arrival, he understood the school's byzantine power structures and was using the dysfunctional administration to his advantage. Blank i cunning; guileless; capricious Blank ii canny; unseemly; desultory

guileless; canny

Contrary to the assumptions that many Westerners hold about mindfulness practices, meditation is often anything but _____; while using various methods to calm the mind, meditations frequently experience intense periods of restlessness and doubt. beneficial mystical orthodox benign halcyon

halcyon

Despite her (i)_ position in tax reform, the senator was not (ii)__ to strike a concessionary tone with when she debated the issue with her opponents Blank i conservative; fiduciary; hardline Blank ii loath; permitted; qualified

hardline; loath

Two years after the legislature's (i)___- approval of the community arts center, construction came to an equally public standstill, largely due to the foreseen hemorrhaging of the (ii)____ funds at the hands pff spendthrift leaders. Blank i scorned; heralded; ratified blank ii stolen; exacerbated; appropriated

heralded; appropriated

While the author's first collection of short stories presented a (i) _______ hodgepodge of voices, the second collection presents a remarkably (ii)_________ set of tales presented by a (iii)______ narrator. Blank i motley; variable; homogeneous Blank ii insightful; even; facetious Blank iii lonely; disingenuous; sole

motley; even; sole

While the author's first collection of short stories presented a (i)________ hodgepodge of voices, the second collection presents a remarkably (ii)_______ set of tales presented by a (iii)________ narrator. Blank i motley; variable; homogeneous Blank ii insightful; even; facetious Blank iii lonely; disingenuous; sole

motley; even; sole

During the prolonged and elaborate farewell tour, no one thought the plaudits heaped upon him were _______ , since his heroics were well documented and admired by all. obsequious derivative deserved vestigial antiquated

obsequious

The more deeply one delves into the relevant literature, the more apparent it becomes that psychoanalysis is a practice (i)_______. Even tenets that some might deem (ii)____ to the general philosophy, such as the notion that the human psyche is primarily governed by conflicting desire and its formed in large part by early childhood experiences, are by no means accepted as gospel, even by some of its most (iii)______. Blank i teeming with ridicule; devoid of substance; rife with contention Blank ii critical; immaterial; anathema Blank iii esteemed beneficiaries; quarrelsome factions; seasoned practitioners

rife with contention; critical; seasoned practitioners

He has such a pleasingly (i)________ personality that it's hard to be bothered by the (ii)_______ in his past. Blank i sanguine; high-handed; evanescent Blank ii peccadilloes; incendiaries; achievement

sanguine; peccadilloes

The club had been all male up util 1963, when it began to admit women, who now make up more of the membership; hence, the female club president was both annoyed and amused at an elderly male member's (i)____ suggestion that women be shuffled off to (ii)_______ organization where they could play bridge and drink tea without having to worry about serious issues. Blank i regressive; rustic; prudish Blank ii an incendiary; an auxiliary; a hierarchical

regressive; an auxiliary

While no single empirical investigation can ever conclusively prove the (i)_____ of a theory, the fact that data are (ii)____ finding from over a dozen independent labs worldwide bodes well fro the framework's resilience. Blank i rationality; veracity; candor Blank ii consistent with; founded on; antithetical to

veracity; consistent with

The (i)______ young employee was soon (ii) ____ for making a serious mistake that cost the company thousands of dollars. Blank i banal; sagacious; verdant Blank ii enamored; castigated; deposed

verdant; castigated

The (i)__________ young employee was soon (ii)________ for making a serious mistake that cost the company thousands of dollars. Blank i banal; sagacious; verdant Blank ii enamored castigated; deposed

verdant; castigated

The captain (i)_____ (ii)____ for as long as he could, but eventually the crew became frustrated with the small portions of mead and the dearth of plunder; and decided to take matters into their own hands. Blank i dissuaded; warded off; depreciated Blank ii sea change; mutiny; helmsmanship

warded of; mutiny

In contrast to environmental economics an older field that concerns itself with monetary valuation of natural resources, the emergent field of ecological economics positions the human economy as a subsystem of natural ecologies, thus ___ environmental economists' subordination of the natural world. circumscribing corroborating refuting ameliorating reversing

reversing

(i)_____ comprehension of the character of Italian wine is impeded not only by labyrinthine complexities of vineyards and varietals, but also by fluctuations in environmental conditions from year to year, which render even the most reliable vintages subjects to (ii)______ Blank i an exhaustive; a futile; an irredeemable Blank ii efficient taxonomy; remarkable variance; mitigating circumstances

An exhaustive; remarkable variance

For all the student's meticulous preparation, he received ________ grade on his final exam. a passable a deplorable an exacting a surprising an outstanding

a deplorable

Although retired, the professor takes pains to remain ______ lastest developments in her field. akimbo to abreast to Subservient to askance to

abreast to

Though the negotiation was initially expected smoothly, it soon became apparent that any semblance of (i)____- between the parties was disingenuous or, at beast, a superficial adherence to certain (ii)_______. Blank i duplicity; amity; solace Blank ii mores; truisms; plaudits

amity; mores

It was a facr that the region was both quiet and rural, but what the typically impoverished residents considered (i)________ refuge was considered by the well-heeled visitors to be an intolerable (ii)_______, and its residents' lifestyles unpleasantly (iii)_______. Blank i a parochial; an arcadian; a squalid Blank ii asylum; utopia; hinterland Blank iii tony; spartan; rational

an arcadian; hinterland; spartan

The pair's apparent antagonism could easily be written off as (i)____ pure and simple, but future scrutiny should render (ii)______ the. fact that the rivalry also confers a fair amount of (iii)_______, insofar as it provides each an opportunity to derive inspiration and motivation from the other. Blank i hypocrisy; antipathy; flagrancy Blank ii useless; patent; spurious Blank iii worthless pride; mutual benefit, tacit disagreement

antipathy; patent; mutual benefit

Jimmy Stewart, the actor, spoke with an (i)_____ the (ii)______ audiences; through hesitancy and understatement, he was at least as captivating as his flamboyant peers. Blank i awkward lisp; overwhelming passion; appealing shyness Blank ii enthralled; repelled; amused

appealing shyness; enthralled

For centuries, commercial portraits have employed a bifurcated aesthetic: like other artists, they strive to represent the truth that gives their works life, but commerce dictates that they simultaneously employ subtle ______ that make the likeness more attractive than the sitter. palettes aesthetics artifacts artifices sentiments

artifices

Despite his longtime advocacy for campaign finance reform, the career politician was, in fact, far more (i)____ corporate interests than his rival, whose relatively recent entry into the political arena meant that he had far fewer (ii)______ to make good on. Blank i leery of; beholden to; apathetic about Blank ii affiliations; dilemmas; obligations

beholden to; oligations

Incensed, and perhaps spooked, by the implications of the bureau's purportedly (i)____ inquisitions, the Hollywood film director stuttered his studios, suspended production of numerous projects, and (ii)______ with his wife to Europe. Blank i suspicious; begin; risqué Blank ii immigrated; decamped; pandered

benign; decamped

Added to the (i)______ with which the clerk seems to treat is clients is what appears to be a more general lack of respect for his office; he seems to that the whole thing as is it were some grand (ii)____ Blank i casual nonchalance; profound meticulousness; idle envy Blank ii gesture; farce; tirade

causal nonchalance; farce

The fact that the average life expectancy then thousand years ago was is much shorter than it is now is often (i)_______ as evidence supporting the notion that the world always improves with time. However, if you(ii)_____ for the face that most children in that epoch died in childbirth, life expectancy for those who survived birth was nearly the same then as it is now. Blank(i) cited; disregarded; embodied Blank(ii) prepare; read; correct

cited ; correct

After A brief initial over power, the group elected a leader and _______ into a surprisingly harmonious team. fractured syncopated coalesced agglomerated amortized

coalesced

December's earthquake was but a __ to a terrible year for a small island nation recently wracked by civil strife and devastating tropical storms. prologue catharsis coda homily rampage

coda

Desktop publishing allows (i)_______ to do for themselves the work once reserved for professionals whose (ii)____ or other training developed design skills along with narrow technical mastery. Blank i dilettantes; artisans; idealogues Blank ii sensibility; acumen; apprenticeship

dilettantes; apprenticeship

The recent discoveries of unexploded wwii munitions buried just beneath houses and roads in European cities is very (i)_____ , since one can easily imagine becoming a (ii)____ of a war that ended decades ago. Blank i exhilarating; disquieting; demanding Blank ii hero; martyr; casualty

disquieting; casualty

The contradictions in the philosopher's life were more (i)____ because he was celebrated for his prodigal intellectual (ii)_____ the led to his profound insights. Blank i insightful; confounding; unpremeditated Blank ii acumen; vacuity; veracity

confounding; acumen

The relationship between the two leaders has gone from positively (i)____ to chilly at best, not least because the recent arms scandal threatens to (ii)_______ the mutual trust that has been held on both sides for years. Blank i peaceful; reverent; congenial Blank ii bolster; erode; fester

congenial; erode

Given (i)_____ of the book, the critical reception was surprisingly (ii)_______; reviewers who usually pounce on the slightest orthodoxy men the text with unabashed approbation. Blank i ingenuity; tortuousness; conventionality Blank ii tepid; laudatory; deprecating

conventionality; laudatory

Though many readers assumed that the. (i)___ depicted in her stories reflected the author's own lifestyle, in reality she was more prudish than (ii)______. Blank dissent; propriety; debauchery Blank ii licentious; moralizing; perspicacious

debauchery; licentious

In the course of a transatlantic voyage following the wwi, he magically acquired an honorific title of "Count" as well as a "von" in his name, a development due to his aquiline nose and social (i)___ rather than his (ii)____ genetics, which lacked any distinction, and he (iii) ___ successfully enough in New York City to parlay this charade into a small fortune. Blank i arrogance; deftness; maladroitness Blank ii peasant; patrician; perturbing Blank iii coalesced; dissembled; dissemniated

deftness; peasant; dissembled

The virtual (i) ___ of John F. Kennedy focuses on his presidential achievements, legend, and assassination; similarly during his candidacy verbal and written (ii) _______ were laid at the altar of his wartime exploits. Blank i deification; excoriation; praise Blank ii calumnies; garlands; obloquies

deification; garlands

Far too (i)______ to consider a career in the political limelight, the unassuming aide contented herself with a career behind the scenes, (ii)_______ supporting the political heavyweights of her day. Blank i diffident; apathetic; ideological Blank ii implicitly; quietly; skeptically

diffident; quietly

Unable to eschew her well0known tendency toward (i)____, the speaker effectively turned a five-minite policy brief into an hour-long (ii)_____- on the history of the region. Blank i terseness; precision; elaboration Blank ii distension; expatiation; repertory

elaboration; expatiation

Hursthouse,(i)_______ virtue ethicists in general, argus that ethics is properly neither situational nor utilitarian and that one ought to seek out virtue and emulate it rather than base one's judgments on subjective concerns or a (ii)________ weighing of pain and pleasure likely to result from a given action; critics, of course, then to (iii) ____ that Hursthouse and other virtue ethicists who seek to define virtue merely seek to enshrine their own prejudices under the guise of theory. Blank i enigmatic to; breaking away from; emblematic of Blank ii: pragmatic; quixotic; grandiloquent Blank iii: posit; deny; cajole

emblematic of ; pragmatic; posit

According to critics, the novelist's latest effort, with its dry pedantry and humorless presentation, managed to make a seemingly (i)__- subject matter into (ii)_____ collection of poorly constructed sentences/ Blank i engaging; affectless; dogmatic Blank ii a worthy; a tired; an instructive

engaging; a tired

As an evolutionary adaptation, cats have developed a mechanism whereby their heads are measuring devices, as their bodies can fit through any space that their heads can, and this physiology is a safeguard that __ their success as a species. reproduces ensures enhances mitigates inundates

enhances

In front of her parents, adults euphemistically referred to the overly talkative young girl as precocious though they privately found her to be ________. garrulous skittish solicitous endearing naïve

garrulous

In front of her parents, adults euphemistically referred to the overly talkative young girl as precocious, though they privately found her to be __________. garrulous skittish solicitious endearing naïve

garrulous

In this day and age, side show barkers, competing with the unfathomable number of spectacular oddities daily displayed on the internet for free must increasingly lard their pitches with flights of fancy and soaring ___, arching far beyond reality, to fill the seats in their arcades. tit for tat parables conundrums innuendos hyperboles

hyperboles

Just as reminiscences of a childhood spent in rural Mexico color the poet's work, so too does the experience of war _____ her poetry. inform mimic invalidate defer presage

inform

Just as ancient Greek culture in some ways provided the Romans with a model, the remnants of Roman culture _____ the development of medieval European mores. duplicated curbed foresaw informed hindered

informed

After many years of war and bloodshed, some became ________ suffering, casting a blind eye to scenes of misery around them. inured to exempted from dominant over effusive towards maudlin over

inured to

Since there significant (i)________ in the flawed methodologies of the studies upon which it is based the meta-analysis is anything but (ii)_________. Blank i irregularities; subtleties; consistencies Blank ii unreliable; intelligible; credible

irregularities; credible

The Tasmanina devil is not consider (i) ______, since only a few of its confrontation with humans have been(ii) ______. Blank i adverse; menacing; unpredictable Blank ii premature; quixotic; unprovoked

menacing; provoked

The Tasmanian devil not considered (i)_________ , since only a few of its confrontations with humans have been (ii)__________. Blank i adverse; menacing; unpredictable Blank ii premature; quixotic; unprovoked

menacing; unprovoked

In her opening remarks, the school's director empathized with the apparent (i)_______ of taking disciplinary action in the classroom; on the one hand, teachers can ill-afford to (ii)______ indisputably disruptive behaviors, while on the other, overly strict administration can actually foster such behaviors. Blank i necessity; entreaty; paradox Blank ii fabricate; brook; mitigate

paradox; brook

The Donner party made a ______ choice to try to close the Sierra Nevada too late in the season, and they paid dearly for the dangerous decision. prudent parlous suicidal semiotic providential

parlous

Dogmatic professors often alienate their classes because they fail to realize that their ______ enervates rather inspires students. wisdom pedantry parsimony pulchritude wit

pedantry

One does not generally associate teenagers with (i)___. Jean, however, exercises a self-discipline that verges on (ii)______. It is unclear whether this is a testament to a particularly conservative upbringing or a reaction against an excessively (iii)_____ one. Blank i silent obedience; polished urbanity; practiced restraint Blank ii asperity; punishment; asceticism Blank iii illiberal' permissive; meddlesome

practiced restraint; asceticism; permissive

Although they had never met, the two writers felt they were of one mind, each (i)_____ anticipating the contents of the others letters; never had two intellectuals been more(ii)_______. Blank(i) ominously; anachronistically; presciently Blank(ii) providential; shrewd; simpatico

presciently; simpatico

Soldier ants are wingless, sterile females they guard the colony and supply it with food, thus acting as both (i)______ and laborers as the (ii)_____ queen produces enough (iii)_______ to continually populate the colony. Blank i: sentries; sage; sycophants Blank ii: fecund; efficacious; imperious blank iii: forebears; progeny; harbingers

sentries; fecund; progeny

Of course, we would all like to believe that our every success is of our own manufacture, but to believe that is to neglect the (i)__________ element present in all lives, beginning with a birth lottery that assigns to some such gifts as intelligence and to others such (ii)______ as wealth Blank i common; inchoate; serendipitous Blank ii encumbrances; dispensations; piques

serendipitous; dispensations

The independent audit showed that the company was not ___, let alone flourishing, as its initial report to its stockholders tried to aver. copious evasive thriving unprecedented solvent

solvent

The writer Lilian Hellman honestly called her disingenuous argumentative strategy "the nobility racket" : a ____ that involved taking the moral high ground no matter how removed from the subject at hand. philosophy sophistry sinecure volubility serendipity

sophistry

A business that, when it receives a requisite amount of regulatory pressure, (i)______ it own non-compliance with industry safety standards with yet another series of suspect omissions, is of the most highly (ii)______ variety Blank i imbues; verifies; supplants Blank ii laudable; contrived; contemptible

supplants; contemptible

His grandmother's house was always a bedlam of porcelain figurines, collector's spoons, and other (i)_______ doodads. But it hardly would have been (ii)____ to tell her that he thought her choice of décor was vulgar; in fact, her had think (iii)______, because the avaricious youth was gunning for a big birthday present from her. Blank i tacky; vitreous; grizzled Blank ii discerning; doting Blank iii amicably; tactically; duplicitously

tacky; discerning; tactically

The (i)_____ child approached the diving board; (ii)______ water in the first place, he found the prospect of jumping into it from some height even more frightening. Blank(i) tremulous; coltish; cumbersome Blank(ii) beguiled by; chary of: repulsed by

tremulous; chary of