A "crusade" is a prolonged and passionate struggle for something. To provide further help, an "obstacle" is something that gets in the way; an "artifice" is a ruse, a piece of trickery; "shard" means fragment of something; a "crucible" is a trial.

A "polyglot" is someone who can speak multiple languages. The prefix poly- means many. So, to provide another example, a "polytheist" is someone who believes in more than one God. Additionally, "carrion" is decaying flesh; a "carcinogen" is something known to cause cancer; a "pugilist" is a boxer, a fighter. 

To solve this problem you need to determine which of these words means a quality that evokes pity in another. The correct answer is therefore "pathos." "Pathos" means a quality that evokes pity or sadness in another person. To provide further help, an "adage" is an old saying; a "sinecure" is an easy job; "innuendo" is any kind of crude or vulgar remark or pun; a "panegyric" is a public speech of praise. 

Buzzards and vultures are two birds that are famous for consuming the flesh of dead animals. The correct answer is therefore "carrion." "Carrion" is the flesh or body of a dead animal. To provide further help, "ingress" means entrance; "tenet" means fundamental belief within a belief system; a "commode" is a room, often a bathroom; "sojourn" means temporary respite.

In a liberal community it is logical that someone with an association with conservatism would be widely mocked. So, to solve this problem you are looking for the answer choice that is similar in meaning to "association." The correct answer is therefore "affiliations." To provide further help, "scruples" are small concerns with something; a "digression" is a deviation, a temporary distraction from the primary purpose of an argument; "nuclei" is the plural form of "nucleus" which means center; "insurrections" are rebellions.

The prefix ambi- means both and this is very similar to the beginning of the word "amphibian." An "amphibian" is an animal that can live on land or in water, such as a frog. To provide further help, a "mollusk" is an animal without a backbone, with a soft body, and generally an outer-shell. Examples of "mollusks" include snails and octopi. A "vertebrate" is an animal with a backbone. 

The key to this question is the participial phrase "removing much of the wonder." The implication is that modernity made the world appear "bleak" like equations of physics. By stripping it of its wonder, it made it quite plain and without poetic meaning—at least the sentence claims this. This is not necessarily to destroy the world, and it does not make much sense to say that it depressed the world. (Perhaps it depressed the people.) The word "disenchanted" (or "disenchantment") can be used merely to describe a person who has become disillusioned or has lost interests. It can also describe, in an extended sense, the thing that was disenchanted—the world, which had lost its appearance of being wonderful.

The sentence implies that once an irregularity enters the system, more would be created very quickly thereafter. The only synonym that we have for the notion of "create" is "generate." This word—which is related to "generations" and "genus"—means to produce or cause. It is related to earlier Latin usages that were particularly used by philosophers to discuss how things come to be and are destroyed—which they called "generation and corruption." We speak of "generations" in a family because we number them according to how they were "created." The grandparents were one generation; they generated the next generation (parents), and so forth.

The key phrases for this sentence is “with creative examples” and “to make the topics more concrete.” Although one could “unravel” complex topics into simpler ones, such “unraveling” does not necessarily involve creative examples (though it may accidentally contain them). Likewise, clear delineation of topics may provide some clarity, but that does not necessarily indicate the use of creative examples. However, “to illustrate” a topic means to explain it with examples. The word comes from the Latin for to illuminate. Something with “luster” has a glow—it shines (like a good example).

The subject of this sentence “refuted” (discredited or invalidated) the state religion, which would likely upset the established order. It therefore makes sense that he would be “banished,” or sent away and exiled, from his homeland. “Lamented” means mourned or expressed sadness about; “shrouded” means covered or enveloped; “procured” means got or obtained; and “ransacked” means searched recklessly and quickly for something.