Based on the opening phrase, Dennis does not enjoy or partake in holiday cheer. So to call him an angel does not make sense, as he sounds unpleasant to be around. Aficionado and generalist both have to do with how much knowledge someone has of a specific or broad amount of information, and this sentence is not concerned with how much Dennis knows about the holidays, so those are not correct. Finally, pushover does not make sense, since nobody is asking him to do anything in the sentence, so he can't give in. That leaves the answer as scrooge, which describes someone who gets grouchy and closed off around happy festivities.

We can infer from the sentence that we need to pick out a noun that means something like "food," because the sentence tells us that many Americans shop for the missing word "in grocery stores, local markets, or specialty food stores." While many Americans might shop for tools, one doesn't usually buy tools at "grocery stores, local markets, or specialty food stores," so "tools" cannot be the correct answer. "Perishables," however, is an noun that means "things, especially foodstuffs, likely to decay or go bad quickly," and because "perishables" is the answer choice that best fits the sentence's context, it is the correct answer.

The sentence hints that the new teacher was nervous merely to give his class. It is not just questions that make him nervous; it is the very act of being in front of his students that unnerves the poor teacher. Therefore, it is best to say that every "lecture" makes him nervous. The word comes from the Latin meaning to read. Classically, a "lecturer" would read his prepared course text at each session.

The sentence gives a clue for you in referring to the water as being "crystal clear." This implies that it is lacking in anything that would cloud it, meaning that it has no "impurities." It is therefore "pure." The word "pure" means many things, but its general sense is lacking mixture. Pure gold does not have any lead (or copper, iron, or anything else) in it. The water's clarity made it appear pure. It therefore drew people to it in order that they might drink it.

The sense of the sentence means to convey that even though you cannot learn all of a topic, you can learn at least some part of it. An "aspect" is one particular "look" at something. The "-spect" part of the word is related to "spectator," and both words deal with looking at something. An "aspect" provides a particular look at a topic or thing. For instance, the American Revolution can be considered from its military aspect or its political aspect. The first focuses on the army conflicts, while the latter focuses on the various political meanings of the Revolution.

The new computer is apparently much better than the previous types of technology in a number of ways. Such an improvement is an "advance" in technology. To "advance" is to go forward. We often use this word in a physical sense: "He advanced down the hallway toward the classroom." However, it can be used in a more general way to mean any sort of improvement or "forward motion" in a metaphorical sense.

Our goals can often be called our "ideals." They are the goals that we have for accomplishing something in reality. By saying that Raymond has "high" ideals, we mean to say that he has very impressive or exalted goals. We know that we are talking about goals because the sentence then talks about him aiming to do his best no matter what. The only other potential option among those given is "visions," but that does not express the notion of having a goal as strongly as does "ideals."

Since Matthew and David cannot stop the water, we can assume that it is flowing from somewhere. We do not know if it is from a pipe, a leak in the foundation, or any other cause. Indeed, options like "pipe" and "spring" are rather awkward anyway. (Read the sentence aloud with those words in it.) They need to find the source, whatever that might be. The best option for "source" given is "cause." The "cause" is the source of the effect—the flooding water. They need to find this to stop the effect—that is, to stop the flooding.

When something is "elusive", it is difficult to catch or even to find. If you spend a long time looking for a "snipe" in the forest and never see it, you will likely think that it does not exist at all. Therefore, you will doubt its very existence—not merely its lack of speed or its "idiocy". (A snipe is, in fact, a real creature—a type of bird. However, many people trick friends into going "snipe hunting" by trying to do something that can't be done, such as look in the forest for a snipe where one won't find one.)

The most tempting wrong answer to this question is likely "descendent." The sentence does imply that every descendent critiques his or her ancestors. However, we must be careful. It says that something critiques the "one living before it." What is the "one" that is related to our blank? It is not the descendent—we don't talk about the "descendent living before" someone (at least not if we are speaking well). We do, however, talk about generations. Roughly speaking, a generation is a group of people born at the same time. In a family, each generation is based on the order of birth. Grandparents are one generation, parents another, and the grandchildren yet another. This is the best answer to this question.