Almost all of the options for the first blank are somehow acceptable, so it is best to pay heed to the second blank’s options. What we know from the first sentence is that Alfric “had become a very quiet, reflective man.” A contemplative person can be called a “ruminant.” This use of the term, which is a valid use, is a metaphoric application of the strict meaning. Properly speaking a “ruminant” is an animal like a cow that chews on the rumen that is partially digested in the first chamber of its stomach. When applied to a person, that person is said to “chew” on their thoughts. This image of chewing on thoughts (thinking them over) was popular, for instance, in Christian monasticism, though it is applicable to any such reflective activity. The word “ruminate” is related to this usage, meaning “to think deeply and reflectively.”

The key here is that Sylvia covered her remarks up. "Euphemisms" are indirect expressions that avoid what would be potentially offensive words. The word comes from two Greek bases. The prefix “eu-” means good and is seen in English words like “eulogy” (good speech, a speech that presents someone else well). The second half comes from “pheme,” meaning to speak, and is seen in English words like “blaspheme” or “blasphemy.”

Platitudes are expressions that have been so overused that they really have no meaning—the “wisdom” that really is nothing but repetition of familiar remarks. At best, the reasoning behind the use of such expressions is “surface level deep” or “superficial,” which means lacking depth or profundity—literally “only on the top (super-) layer (-ficial).”

If something is “hermetic” it is sealed totally—often in the sense of being air-tight, though (as in our sentence) it can mean that something is sealed from outside influences. If the mountains thus seal the community from outside world, they are “obstructions” in the way of potential passage.

Someone is "wary" when he or she shows caution in the face of any possibly dangerous situation. Given that he had been duped in the past, it makes sense that Joseph could be said to be wary; however, do not be fooled by the sentence into thinking there should be a negative sense to the second word. There is nothing that implies that any future converse will be negative—even if he is wary. All that we can say is that he is careful when any proposal comes to his company.

We cannot say if Elizabeth was “dolorous” in her observation of these rules; however, it is fair to say that obsessive care would lead one to avoiding the mildest breach of conduct; therefore, the best pair is “scrupulously . . . infraction.” (Note that “regularly” just is not quite as strong as “scrupulously”).

A scrupulous person is very attentive to details, often from a fear of doing anything wrong. An "infraction" is a violation. The word is related to other “-fring-” and “-fract-” words like “infringe,” “fracture,” and “fragile”—all related to “breaking” because of their common Latin roots.

The key word is rather inconspicuous: “original.” This helps to give a sense to what precedes the “passage of time.” The “inception” of something is its beginning, and it is related to many “-cep-” and “-cap-” words like “conception,” “reception,” and “exception.” If something is “ossified” it has become hard and inflexible. The meaning is derived from the Latin for bone.

With the exception of “economics,” all of the other options for the first word are some how involved with the pricing of goods. The implication of the first sentence is that the laws of supply and demand, while important, are not ultimate. Instead, there is something closer to the reality of pricing. 

The word “radically” might surprise you at first. Consider the following: “That decision from the legislature radically changed the nature of the country’s notion of self-government.” Here, “radically” describes a significant change. The word originally comes from the Latin for “root,” reflected in words like “radish” as well as “eradicate” (to take up from its very roots); therefore, to say that something is “radically founded” on something else is to say that it “has its roots” therein—that is, it is closer and more fundamentally related to that.

So long as you know that “egalitarian” views are those that lead one to judge that all people are equal, you will have an easy time answering this question. Note that the “eg” and the “eq” sounds are actually very close, and that is why this shift occurs in the common base. The second word, “irreducibility” merely means that some given things cannot be explained in terms of another. The “i(r)-” prefix merely indicates a negation of the remaining “reducibility.”

The easiest way to choose the correct answer to this question is to note the positive implications in both sentences (“quickly” and “impressive”); therefore, the two most tempting options for the first blank are “deftly” and “impressively;” however, “transmission” in the latter paring does not make much sense, whereas “dexterity” does. If someone does something “deftly,” they do it with both speed and skill. The word “dexterity” comes remotely from the Latin for “skill” (dexteritas), which itself is based on the word “dexter,” meaning right. Many times, such approving meanings are attached to those who are right-handed, while left-handed persons fare much worse in our etymologies. For instance, consider the Latin word for “left,” which has relations to its obvious English cognate, “sinister.”