Text Completion Drill #5

1. Gwen Guthrie's controversial compact disc was ------- by wary radio programmers until the city's listening audience ------- her work and requested its airplay.

A. ignored . . initiated
B. banned . . overlooked
C. dismissed . . praised
D. justified . . boycotted
E. appreciated . . enjoyed

2. When autumn comes to the Southwest, the chamisa plant blooms, and this previously ------- shrub suddenly seems to be everywhere.

A. omnipresent
B. precipitous
C. flowering
D. dazzling
E. inconspicuous

3. In sharp contrast to the previous night's revelry, the wedding was ------- affair.

A. a fervent
B. a dignified
C. a chaotic
D. an ingenious
E. a jubilant

4. Because Congress exempted the ------- of household products from its regulation of hazardous waste, consumers continue to contribute to toxic pollution by improperly ------- dangerous substances.

A. purchase . . manufacturing
B. enlargement . . preserving
C. distribution . . eliminating
D. abundance . . economizing
E. disposal . . discarding

5. As a boy and young man, Paul Cézanne was ------- but also -------: extremely passionate about painting yet unusually restrained socially.

A. auspicious . . reticent
B. zealous . . compulsive
C. ardent . . inhibited
D. prudent . . fixated
E. impetuous . . officious

6. The debate over adopting the constitution was by no means a ------- discourse: tempers flared and ------- resounded throughout the meeting hall.

A. peaceful . . accommodations
B. contentious . . insults
C. tense . . opinions
D. decorous . . invectives
E. genteel . . anecdotes

7. The medical community seemed so factional that medical progress was often accompanied by -------, with each step forward creating new enmities.

A. sacrifice
B. astonishment
C. coordination
D. conflict
E. error

8. After years of speaking with smug superiority to colleagues, the manager finally admitted that such an attitude was -------.

A. arrogant
B. cerebral
C. plausible
D. unassailable
E. frugal

9. Despite their attempts at -------, the ------- between Peter and Fred was barely suppressed.

A. camaraderie . . admiration
B. reconciliation . . forgiveness
C. geniality . . antipathy
D. estrangement . . hostility
E. earnestness . . severity

10. The economic position of the Victorian working poor was so ------- that even a brief spell of unemployment was likely to plunge them into -------.

A. comfortable . . despair
B. sanguine . . helplessness
C. perilous . . excess
D. dire . . prosperity
E. tenuous . . destitution

11. Although some of the text's language is archaic and virtually indecipherable, most of it is surprisingly -------.

A. intelligible
B. convoluted
C. florid
D. constrained
E. elevated

12. The sound advice given by the eleventh-century medical scholar Trotula in her writings on women's health ------- some of our assumptions about the inadequacy of medieval medicine.

A. belies
B. bypasses
C. elucidates
D. compounds
E. camouflages

13. Although Ms. Harvey's disposition was generally -------, she could become enraged when sufficiently -------.

A. vicious . . ignored
B. serene . . provoked
C. energetic . . disappointed
D. meek . . complimented
E. perverse . . betrayed

14. The playwright provides us, the audience, with the ------- feeling of -------; we revel in the power to perceive connections that the characters cannot perceive.

A. delightful . . diligence
B. exhilarating . . omniscience
C. despondent . . sensitivity
D. restful . . sarcasm
E. frentic . . despair

15. The ambassador viewed his peacemaking mission to the warring border countries with -------, expecting that ------- was unlikely in the near future.

A. enthusiasm . . mediation
B. cynicism . . conflict
C. trepidation . . reconciliation
D. satisfaction . . security
E. elation . . compromise