If his grandmother had “idolized” or “lauded” him, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to find that she had left him money. To “abhor” is to regard with complete hatred. “Annuity” refers to money that is paid out regularly to someone for a set amount of time. “Abhorred . . . annuity” is the correct answer.

It's clear from the context of the sentence that the first blank must refer to the negative consequence of the government's ineptitude. "Collapse," "implosion," and "dissolution" are all possibly correct, so we will need to take a look at the second blank in order to narrow down our options. From the context given, we can see that the second blank is used to explain the cause of the government's failure. Of our remaining choices, only "stemmed" fits. Thus, we know that "dissolution" and "stemmed" are our answers.

This question becomes easily answered if you're able to recognize the expression "bane of my existence," a common phrase which refers to something that spoils or ruins. Even if this did not immediately come to mind, a closer inspection of the answer choices presents few other viable options in the first blank. In the second blank, only "spawning" and "generating" make any sense. As an "augury" is a sign of something that will happen in the future, only the combination of "bane" and "spawning" makes sense in the context of the sentence.

An "schedule" is a timetable for things to take place and the word seemingly fits in the first blank of the sentence; however, to "inveigle" is to entice or lure through flattery, which does not make sense in the second blank. "Itinerary" is a word close in meaning to schedule, and "jettison" literally means to cast overboard. Therefore, "itinerary" and "jettison" are our best choices.

In this sentence, it saves time to intuitively recognize that the second blank is more limited in the words which might logically fit. In examining the answer choices, only "nadir" and "transgression" make sense, so we've immediately narrowed our options down to two. Now, let's look at the first blank. Since we are now choosing between "nettled" and "confounded," it is clear that only "nettled" makes sense in the context. Therefore, we have arrived at our correct pairing of "nettled" and "nadir."

For the first blank, we are looking for a word which means to rid of impurities, so we should focus on "rarefying," which means just that, and "homogenizing," which means to make uniform. For the second blank, we need a word that means to combine, since the metals are being poured into one mold. Since "amalgamates" means combines different things into one, the correct answer is "rarefying . . . amalgamates." 

The key points to heed are that the topics are "difficult" and that Paschal did not fear directly addressing issues. Really, the easiest way to begin with this is to see that "circumlocute" particularly fits the bill for the first blank and to note that "disconcerting" likewise works well. Circumlocute comes from the Latin for to talk ("locute") and around ("circum"). The other options are tempting, but none of them catch the sense in such a manner that so directly matches Paschal's desire to directly address issues.

Because medieval treatments were risky, we know that they were as likely to hurt patients as they were to help them. So, because the missing words both refer to symptoms, we’re looking for a synonym of cause or increase for the first blank, and a synonym for lessen for the second blank. We can eliminate the answer choices that include “hamper,” “nullify,” and “abrogate” as options for the first blank, leaving us with “exacerbate . . . allay” and “engender . . . worsen.” Since we’re looking for a word for the second blank that means lessen, we can eliminate “engender . . . worsen,” since “worsen” means the opposite of “lessen.” So, the correct answer is “exacerbate . . . allay.” 

For the first blank, we can infer that we need to pick out a verb that means something like "ruin the reputation of," because we know that the reporter exposed the newspaper's corruption. Either "demonize" ("portray as wicked and threatening") or "vilify" ("speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner") could be potentially correct. For the second blank, we need to pick out a word that means something like "write things intended to damage one's reputation," so either "slandering" ("making false and damaging statements about (someone)") or "disparaging" ("regarding or representing as being of little worth") could be correct. Of the possible words that we've identified as potentially correct for each blank, only "vilify" and "slandering" appear in the same answer choice, so the correct answer is "vilify . . . slandering."

If this restaurant's popularity has increased, we would expect it to be difficult to reserve a table for the same night; conversely, if its popularity has declined, it would be relatively easy to get a same-day reservation. The end of the sentence ("we were able to") tells us that the latter scenario (diminished popularity/ better odds of getting a reservation) is the case here. For the first blank, either "waned" or "ebbed" would fit, as these are synonyms meaning decreased. "Secure" and "procure" in the second blank would both mean that you were able to obtain a reservation. "Proffer" (offer) would not make sense. Thus, the pairing of waned/secure is the correct answer.