The sentence suggests that the author is feeling nervous walking home alone at night. The answer choice that most closely resembles nervous is “wary,” which means nervous and cautious. To further help you, "enamored" means in love with; "passive" means restrained or not aggressive; "rage" means anger; "effusive" means demonstrative.

The context of this sentence suggests that the teacher should have been inclined to punish the boy for breaking the rules, but instead decided to be tolerant and patient. When someone has good reason to be angry, but decides instead not to yell, we call this person "lenient." To provide further help, "severe" means intense or extreme, "diabolical" means evil, "immaculate" means spotless or perfect, and "ominous" means suggesting danger or threatening.

From the context of the sentence, you know that Ryan is capable, but not spectacular at his studies. This is similar in meaning to “competent,” which means capable, but not the best. To provide further help, “obtuse” means dull, not sharp; “anonymous” means unknown; “perennial” means occurring regularly, constant. 

If you were merely filling in the blank for this sentence without looking at the options provided, you would likely write: "Todd's faults were not as bad . . ." The second clause (after "for") implies that Todd only has minor character flaws, not major ones (even if the latter appears to be the case). The word "grave" does not only mean "a burial place." It is also can be used as an adjective meaning "serious." This use of the word comes from the Latin for "heavy" (as well as "serious") and is related to the word "gravity."

Because Alice’s friends do not like her extreme enthusiasm, it is likely they would wish her to be more relaxed and calm, or “mellow.” To provide further help, “belligerent” means aggressive; “impulsive” means acting without thinking; “antagonistic” means annoying, irritating.

A "cheery" attitude is one that is very happy and often "optimistic" (seeing the best in everything). If someone has the opposite of such an attitude, such a person is depressing, "dark," and unhappy.  Since Donald is being contrasted with Geneva, this is the case for him. It is not proper to say that he has an "angry" attitude (or any of the options related to that). Likewise, "chipper" is really a synonym of "cheery"; we need an antonym.  "Dreary" works best, as it means bleak or depressing.

The first thing to notice is the the conjunction "but," which indicates that there is some contrast or qualification in the second clause. In the second clause, it is said that others were not always sure whether or not James was avoiding the truth. It is uncertain whether or not he was being deceptive. Therefore, the first clause states that he was not, properly speaking, deceptive—even though he did seem to be so at times.

We need to pick out an answer choice that is a verb and means something like "unknowing” or "oblivious" because the sentence tells us that Mrs. Wilson said something and Max responded by staring at her instead of reacting to her statement. We can tell that Mrs. Wilson is reading Max's expression because the sentence starts out with the phrase "Judging by Max's ________ stare." "Impassive" is the best choice because it means emotionless or lacking expression. This best describes a stare that Mrs. Wilson might receive from Max after she says something he does not understand (and thus does not react strongly to). None of the other answer choices make sense in the blank: "grave" means serious when used as an adjective or a crypt when used as a noun; "dynamic" means lively; and "devious" means dishonest or immoral.

In contrast with being sensible, Paul appears to his friends as becoming "adolescent." The period of "adolescence" is the time in a person's life between childhood and adulthood, often marked by immaturity, for such people have not completely grown into emotional adulthood. In contrast with Paul's sensible youth, he now—strangely enough—is acting rather "immature," that is, not-mature.

In contrast with Aaron's voice, John's was "lilting" and "varied." This means that his tone was not always the same. A "lilting" voice is one that rises and falls in various ways, not having that boring, unchanging tone that some people can have—like Aaron, it seems! Therefore, the best option to describe Aaron's voice is "monotonous." This word literally means having one tone or one pitch. The prefix "mono-" means one. The word "monopoly" describes a situation in which one company alone has control over an industry.