The man's refusal is explained in the relative clause. He does not wish to deny what he believes to be true. When someone "recants" an opinion, he or she states that he or she no longer holds a given opinion. This best describes the man's attitude. The word comes from a combination of the prefix "re-", here meaning back (as in, for instance, "re-turn") and the base-word "-cant," which is related to the word "chant" meaning to sing. Think of "recanting" like taking back a position that you once sung (that is, said or held).

So long as you are not tricked by the word "pined," you should be able to get this question correct rather easily. None of the wrong answers work grammatically. They do not take the preposition "for" as does the word "pine." The word "pine" can be used as a verb meaning to suffer decline, usually implying some sort of emotional / love trauma. When combined with the preposition "for," the expression "pine for" means long for. This meaning does work in the context of our sentence.

It makes sense that the firemen would take action to put out the fire, so the blank word has to relate to the process of putting out a fire. The correct answer is “douse,” which means to drench with water. To further help you, "exacerbate" and "intensify" are synonyms and both mean to make worse or more intense; "embolden" means to make confident; "solidify" means to make solid or to harden.

The context of the sentence suggests that Josh would be feeling regret about his opportunities because he missed them. The correct answer must therefore be close in meaning to regret. The correct answer is “rue,” which means to regret. To further help you, "admonish" means to criticize; "absolve" means to free from blame; "display" means show. 

"Civil war" and "refugees" both suggest that people have to get out of Syria in order to survive. The best word to describe this urgent need to leave is "fleeing." "Fleeing" means leaving a place to escape danger.

The second part of the sentence shows that the president wanted to the candidate to win the election. The first part of this sentence should therefore show that the president supports the candidate. The best word to complete this sentence is "endorse." "Endorsed" means gave public support to someone or something.

After the police caught the suspect, they wanted to ask him questions. The word that best completes the sentence will suggest to the reader that the suspect was held by the police so that the police could ask him or her questions. The best answer is "detained." "Detained" means kept someone from leaving a specified location. It is usually used to describe the police not letting a suspect leave.

The context of the sentence suggests that the runner must have slowed down as a result of running low on energy. This means that the answer choice cannot be "sprint" (run fast) or "accelerate" (speed up or go faster). Likewise it cannot be "hasten," which is a synonym of "hurry," because these two words also suggest speeding up. The correct answer is therefore “falter,” which means begin losing strength.

The second clause in this sentence suggests that the author is not going to talk about the man’s secrets. "Protect," "defend," "guard," and "shelter" are all synonyms and opposite in meaning to the answer we are looking for. The correct answer is “divulge,” which means reveal.

From the context of the sentence, particularly the information in the second clause, we know that Grant feels the process is going too slowly and he wishes to make it go faster. This should lead you to the correct answer “expedite,” which means speed up the process of something. "Expedite" is an antonym of "decelerate." To help you, "mollify," "assuage," and "pacify" are all loose synonyms: "mollify" means appease or make calm, "assuage" means lessen a bad feeling, such as fear, and "pacify" means placate or soothe.