This sentence is a case of increasing intensity. The words "not merely . . . but instead" indicate that some people are not just unhappy. They are indeed very unhappy. To be "miserable" is to be extremely unhappy. This is the best choice for expressing a great degree of unhappiness.

The key word in this sentence is "holy." Because of this one adjective, it is not the best choice to say that the islanders believed that the cave was merely "reserved" to the gods. (Anyway, grammatically, it would be better to say that it was "reserved for", but "reserved to" does work.) When something is reserved because it is holy or is made holy by such reservation, it is "consecrated." The word is related to "sacred," which should help you to remember it.

The contrast in this sentence is between the rustic lifestyle of Peter's village and the new city to which he moved. The word "rustic" is a near synonym of "rural" or "in the countryside." While the city might be crowded or even more polluted than the countryside, the best contrast to "rural" / "rustic" is "urban," which means city-like or pertaining to the nature of a city. This provides the clearest contrast to "rustic."

This question is really a matter of choosing the "least bad" answer because it is not completely direct regarding the options. However, you can easily eliminate the wrong answers. The key will be not bringing in extra interpretations, even if they might be valid. We can only go by the sentence's content.

There is nothing to say that Maritain was "outdated"—at least in the sentence. Likewise, there is nothing about his fame (or infamy) in the sentence. Now, we might think he was "regular" since this basically affirms that he was a defender, but the better choice is "zealous." This is because of the little word "must." This implies that he had strong feelings about the matter. When someone does something with "zeal," that person does that thing with great energy. While we do not necessarily have discussion of energy in the sentence, it could be implied because of the force of "must." This is at least better than "regular," which is slightly weaker.

We can infer from the sentence's context that we need to pick out a word that means something like "a crowd of people," specifically one that might follow a movie star around. While "crowded" might look like an obvious answer, "crowded" is an adjective, not a noun, so it can't be the correct answer. "Pack" refers to a group, but specifically "a group of wild animals, especially wolves, living and hunting together," so "pack" can't be the correct answer either. "Line" refers to a group of people, but doesn't make much sense in the sentence's context (following a movie star around), so "line" isn't the correct answer either. The best answer choice is "entourage," a noun that means "a group of people attending or surrounding an important person."

We can infer that because Jim is "always tripping over uneven portions of the sidewalk," he probably drags his feet. So, we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like "walk while dragging one's feet." "Marching" may seem like a potentially correct answer, but "marching" means "walk in a military manner with a regular measured tread," and doesn't make sense in the blank as explaining why Jim trips over uneven portions of the sidewalk. "Shuffling," however, is a verb that can mean "slide one's feet along the ground or back and forth without lifting them completely," and because "shuffling" best fits the context of the sentence, "shuffling" is the correct answer.

There are no clues in this sentence to help you answer this question other than that it must be very impressive for the driver to win the race having begun so far behind. It becomes necessary to plug words in to see which best fits. The correct answer is “scintillating,” because this means brilliant, bright and impressive, and amazing. “Horizontal” means level with the horizon or oriented in this direction; “divergent” means different, going separate ways, or fragmenting; “egregious” means appalling or terrible; and “deplorable” means deserving of hatred and disgust.

From the context of the sentence, you can infer that Steve would be likely to travel slowly to his friend's house; the sentence tells you he "was in no hurry." The answer choice that best captures this slow movement is “amble,” which means walk slowly. To help you, "sprint" means run quickly, and "allay" means calm or diminish and is usually used in the sense of allaying someone's fears or concerns.

It is key to note that the elders in the community were horrified not specifically at damage done in the cemetery but at the youths' "lack of respect for the dead." All of the wrong answers in some way deal with destruction. Certainly "bombing" is too specific, but the others are quite tempting. However, only "desecration" best describes not merely a destructive behavior but (quite importantly for us) an act that is disrespectful. The word "sacred" is related to "desecrate." To "desecrate" something means, in a sense, to remove its sacred character by treating it poorly. This is implied by the fact that the horror was "at the youths' lack of respect for the dead."