Far from being the ______ theorist his rivals caricatured, Halloran revised his central claims repeatedly, discarding whole chapters when the data demanded it.
(A) dogmatic (B) meticulous (C) prolific (D) diffident (E) itinerant
Skeleton: "Far from being" is a contrast signal. The reality is that Halloran "revised repeatedly … discarding whole chapters" — i.e., he was flexible and undogmatic. So the caricature (the blank) must be the opposite: rigid, unwilling to change.
Answer: (A) dogmatic — asserting opinions as if beyond dispute. Meticulous (B) means careful, which does not contrast with revising. Prolific (C) means producing a great deal — irrelevant to flexibility. Diffident (D) means shy or lacking confidence, the opposite of what a rival would caricature. Itinerant (E) means traveling from place to place — off-topic.
The memoir's tone is bracingly ______: rather than burnishing his legacy, the author lingers on his failures, his petty jealousies, and the friendships he let wither.
(A) sanctimonious (B) self-effacing (C) grandiloquent (D) querulous (E) maudlin
Skeleton: The colon signals that what follows defines the blank. "Rather than burnishing his legacy" (rather than flattering himself) and "lingers on his failures" point to modesty and self-criticism.
Answer: (B) self-effacing — modest, not drawing attention to oneself. Sanctimonious (A) means making a show of virtue — the opposite of dwelling on one's failures. Grandiloquent (C) means pompous in speech — again the reverse. Querulous (D) means habitually complaining, and maudlin (E) means tearfully sentimental; neither captures honest self-criticism.
The lecture was so (i)______ that even devoted students fought to stay awake; her published essays, by contrast, crackled with (ii)______, their prose vivid and their arguments alive.
Blank (i): (A) soporific (B) riveting (C) contentious Blank (ii): (D) turgidity (E) verve (F) obscurity
Skeleton: "by contrast" splits the sentence: dull lectures versus lively essays. Blank (i) is strongly cued by "fought to stay awake" → sleep-inducing. Blank (ii) is cued by "vivid … alive" → energy.
Answer: (A) soporific and (E) verve. Soporific means sleep-inducing (matches "fought to stay awake"); verve means energy and enthusiasm (matches "vivid … alive"). Riveting (B) contradicts the drowsiness. Turgidity (D) means pompous, inflated prose — the opposite of "vivid." Obscurity (F) means unclear — not what "alive" describes. Contentious (C) means quarrelsome, unrelated to dullness.
Historians once treated the empire's collapse as (i), the inevitable consequence of moral decay. Recent scholarship is more (ii): it traces the fall to a contingent cascade of harvest failures, currency debasement, and border pressure — factors that, had any one been absent, might have (iii)______ the outcome entirely.
Blank (i): (A) preordained (B) inexplicable (C) salutary Blank (ii): (D) dogmatic (E) nuanced (F) polemical Blank (iii): (G) hastened (H) forestalled (J) mandated
Skeleton: Sentence one gives the old view: collapse as "inevitable consequence of moral decay." Sentence two contrasts ("more ___") and offers a web of contingent causes.
Answer: (A) preordained, (E) nuanced, (H) forestalled. Notice the method: blanks (i) and (ii) are locked by the old-view/new-view contrast, and blank (iii) is locked by "had any one been absent," which demands a word meaning "prevented."