"Abstain" means to forgo or hold back from doing something. "Abscond" means to run away or depart secretly. "Garner" means to collect or accumulate. "Incite" means to encourage or provoke. "Fathom" means to discern or understand. 

"Provoke" means to start, and the word closest in meaning to that is incite.

"Engender" and "induce" both mean to cause to happen or to cause an action. "Repress" means to keep back or hold in. "Juxtapose" means to place side by side. "Mitigate" means to diminish or lighten. "Pilfer" means to steal or embezzle. 

Something "contrived" is devised or "invented."

The word impair does not have to do with “two” things (as you might think from “pair”). Instead, it is related to the same Latin root that underlies the word “pejorative,” which means “contemptuous” or “disapproving.” A pejorative word is negative and can be hurtful. When someone is impaired, he or she is weakened or made worse. While one could speak of something like “impairing the process of making the product,” the term is most often used with reference to human abilities. For instance, consider the sentence, “The four glasses of wine impaired John’s coordination, so he thought it better to have someone else drive home.”

The word “conserve” likely is associated with the word “conservative” for you. The latter does have to deal with certain aspects of political thought concerned with “retaining the past,” but the signification of that word is not simple. The general sense conveyed by words related to “conserve” is that of “preserving” or “retaining.” A conservative person desires to retain the customs, ideas, or morals of a past age. Any other notions are added to this basic and foundational signification, which is best expressed by “safeguard.”

The word “instigate” comes from Latin roots meaning to stick into (like putting a pin into something). When we instigate someone or something, we attempt to bring it into reality. To “instigate” a revolt is to attempt to start a revolt. Such activities could also be called “inciting,” which means to arouse to action or to encourage to do something, often implying that the encouraging is done with rhetoric and for bad ends. This is by far the best option.

Since "defer" means "to put off an action or event until a later time," we're looking for an adjective that means something like "delay." While "vex" sounds like it could potentially be correct, "vex" actually means "make someone feel annoyed, frustrated, or worried, esp. with trivial matters," so it's not a synonym of "defer." "Postpone" is the best answer choice, as it means "cause or arrange for something to take place at a later time than first scheduled."

The word “abate” most directly means to become less intense. For instance, one could say, “Although Robert was quite angry at his friends, with time, this emotion abated, being replaced with a much calmer state of mind.” In its English origins, the word had a legal usage meaning to put a stop to. Since “abate” distantly has a root in the Latin for to beat, the word could be taken (in a broader sense) as indicating the beating back of something intense.

“Engender” means cause, create, or be the cause of, so "create" is the best answer choice. As for the other answer choices, “alleviate” means lessen the intensity of something bad; “demonstrate” means show how something is done by doing it oneself; “ridicule” means make fun of; and “mismanage” means manage poorly or mess up.