"Kudos" means congratulations or praise. "Chagrin" means displeasure or annoyance. "Edict" means a pronouncement or order. "Acumen" means ability to understand or reason, acuity, or ingenuity. "Maxim" means a saying or a proverb. 

"Intuition" means insight or instinct. "Chagrin" means displeasure or annoyance. "Eloquence" means skillful way with words or speech. "Belligerence" means aggresiveness or hostility. "Apathy" means an uncaring attitude or lack of caring.

"Eulogy" means tribute or praise. "Censure" means condemnation or denunciation. "Affirmation" means a claim or assurance. "Hyperbole" means exaggeration or embellishment. "Maxim" means a saying or proverb.

"Avarice" means greed or selfishness. "Odyssey" means an epic journey full of adventure. "Opacity" means darkness or ambiguity. "Etiquette" means manners or proper behavior. "Stimulus" means provocation or incitement.

"Aberration" means an oddity or abnormality. "Tangent" means a digression or an aside. "Venality" means something easily bribed or manipulated. "Onus" means a responsibility or duty. "Invocation" means conjuration or enchantment.

"Iconoclast" means someone who questions the traditional or conservative way of doing things. "Mendicant" means a beggar or vagrant. "Plethora" means an excess or overabundance. "Implication" means an association or suggestion. "Tyro" means a beginner or novice.

This question asks for a word that means that Julie had the ability to do well. The word closest in meaning to ability is competence. 

Lady Macbeth delivers a monologue or a long speech given by one person that allows the character to express hidden thoughts and emotions.  She indeed expresses her innermost thoughts and the fact that she is distraught due to the recent deaths of Lady Macduff and Banquo. 

Since the narrator's father can joke about anything, we should expect that he was always ready with a joke or a wisecrack. "Cackle" is close to the word we're looking for; it means a shrill laugh. However, this would suggest that the narrator's father laughs at other people's jokes, but does not make them himself, and we are specificaly told that "[he] could make a joke out of anything." "Story" doesn't fit, either, because while stories can be funny, they aren't necessarily funny. "Calumny" means a false and injurious remark about someone—not very funny! "Fenestration" refers to the design of windows—that has nothing to do with making jokes! Our best choice is "quip," which means a quick, witty remark.

We can infer that the band didn't sound good initially, so we're looking for a noun that refers to sound, specifically sound that is unpleasant and loud. While "harmony" refers to sound, it refers to sounds that pleasantly agree with each other, so it's not the word we're looking for. Similarly, "melody" refers to sound, but since it refers to a sequence of pleasant musical notes, it's not the correct answer either. "Cacophony," on the other hand, refers to sound, and means a discordant combination of sounds, and is the best answer choice. (The root "phon" tells us that a word has something to do with sound—think "telephone," "phonics," or "symphony.")