"Converge" means to congregate or gather together. "Ameliorate" means to make better or refine. "Belie" means to misrepresent or mislead. "Distend" means to become larger and rounder from internal pressure. "Expedite" means to cause something to happen faster.

"Kindle" means to ignite or light. "Jeopardize" means to risk or imperil. "Pilfer" means to steal or rip off. "Juxtapose" means to place two or more things side-by-side for comparison. "Scrutinize" means to scan or review in detail.

"Assuage" means to soothe or relieve. "Waver" means to shift back and forth or be indecisive. "Inhibit" means to restrict or inhibit. "Cadge" means to beg or scrounge. "Emulate" means to imitate the actions of someone or something.

"Glean" means to pick out or collect. "Obviate" means to make unneccesary. "Feign" means to pretend or fake. "Desiccate" means to dehydrate or dry out. "Aver" means to assert or maintain.

The people want the war to stop, so it is best to assume that they want the disputes between the nation to be resolved. The answer choice that most clearly displays this meaning is reconciled. 

We can infer from the sentence that the water is not draining through the pipes. "A mass of food residue" is causing the problem. We could guess that the food is blocking the pipes, so we should predict that the food needs to be removed or expelled. "Inculcated" means to have impressed something on the mind or to have some idea instilled into the brain. That makes no sense in this sentence!  "Coddled" means pampered or spoiled, and we don't want to treat the mass kindly, we want to get rid of it! "Machinated" means to have created an evil plot, so it doesn't make sense in the sentence. "Compacted" is close in meaning to the word we want; it means condensed or compressed, so it doesn't really fit the sentence, either. "Expunged" means to have obliterated or completely removed something. That's our best choice.

From the context of the sentence, we know that Marge got to the restaurant early because she was able to avoid the construction by taking an alternate route. So, we are looking for a verb that means to avoid. Since to "circumvent" something means to navigate around an obstacle, "circumventing" is the correct answer.

The word that fits in this blank needs to be a verb that means something along the lines of told. Since "divulge" means expose secret information, it is the best answer.

We're looking for a verb that means see, as the sentence involves the medium "looking into her crystal ball," or find out in advance, because we can infer that she claims to be able to know about the future in advance. Because of this, the best answer choice is "descry," which means either see or discover.

The sister here could be said to “pester” her brother, that is, to attempt to annoy him into anger. When someone “provokes” another person, he or she attempts to draw out or cause an emotion or reaction in that person. The word comes from roots that literally mean to draw forth. The “pro-” prefix can mean forward, as can be seen in words like “proceed” (to go forward with some chosen action). The “-voke” portion here means to call. It is found in words like “invoke” and “invocation.” It is also related to words like “vocal” and “vocation.”