Guile indicates either slyness or cleverness.  For instance, a daughter might use guile and cunning to get her parents to buy her a car.

"Correspondence" is a noun defined as "a close similarity, connection, or equivalence" or "communication by exchanging letters with someone." While all of the answer choices may sound somewhat similar to "correspondence" because they all end in "-ence" or "-ance," we know that "dissonance" cannot be the correct answer because "dissonance" means "lack of harmony among musical notes" or "a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements," making it an antonym of "correspondence," not a synonym. "Consonance," is a noun that can mean "agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions," and because it is the answer choice closest in meaning to "correspondence," it is the correct answer.

Do not be tempted by trap answers like “pessimistic” and “harmful,” which might come to mind if you read the word “negation” as being “negative.” Certainly, the two words are related, but the word negation most properly indicates opposition. Often, it is expressed in language as “not-X.” For instance, the negation of “hot” is “not-hot” (for which we will likely use a number of possible words). When something “contradicts,” it literally “speaks against” something else. The “contra-” means “against” as in “contrary,” and “-diction” is related to other words for speaking such as “diction,” “dictate,” “edict,” and “predict.”

The word “jargon” is usually used to describe a set of terms that are isolated to a given group. For instance, consider the sentence, “The group of philosophers stood around talking about the infravalent value formally predicated of the inefficacious desire of the transcendentally ordered formal object of volition.” Certainly, such a sentence is quite mysterious! Though it might seem amazing, there are groups of people for whom that sentence has a real value—though it is a bit overdone with its wording. In any case, this is a great example of “jargon”—it is limited to a given group and very difficult for anyone else to understand. Often, one speaks of “legal jargon,” that is, the talk of lawyers and their technical niceties. While several options, like “confusion” and “perplexity” seem to match this, the best option is “idiom,” which is an expression that is limited to a group and is not easily translated into other language.

The word levity often is used to describe frivolous humor or frivolity, so it might be tempting to choose an option like “irresponsibility” or “unreliability;” however, even if it were to be taken as meaning only “frivolous,” one still would have to stretch a bit to extend the meaning to “irresponsibility”—though, admittedly, one who is frivolous might likely be irresponsible. It is best to stay close to the original meaning; therefore, “cheerfulness” is the best option.

The word “lucre” is often used in an expression taken from the King James Bible, which greatly influenced expressions used in spoken English. That expression is “filthy lucre,” meaning “ill-gotten money.” The word “lucre” originally came from the Latin for “gain” or “profit.” It often takes on the sense of greed, but among the options given in this question, the best answer is the simple word “money.” The word is related to “lucrative,” which means “producing much profit.”

Often, we speak of the “lore” of this or that group. For instance, “A normal part of the middle school’s lore were the tales of the students who had been trapped in the supposed dungeons under the English teacher’s classroom.” This example is meant to show also how the word often is associated with “tall tales” and (perhaps more negatively) outright lies; however, this is not necessarily the case, for the word “lore” merely means “a tale that is passed down, often orally.” Among the options provided “legend” best provides this neutral meaning.

Strictly speaking, the “chaff” is outer husk of wheat that is separated from the actual grain during process. An image in the Bible concerning God’s judgment is the image of “separating the chaff and the wheat”—implying a less than joyous end for the chaff. The image is cited merely as an example here. When the term is given a more general sense, it means “worthless portion of something.” This notion of worthlessness is expressed by the word “dross.”

When someone parodies the work of another person, he or she makes a mock imitation, exaggerating various aspects for the sake of amusement. For instance, an author might write a book that retells a story very similar to that of another while deliberately attempting to show how ridiculous the original was in a given aspect. Satire often uses such exaggeration, though it is often aimed at criticizing the vices of others.

Do not confuse “duel” with “dual.” They are both related to the word “two” but in different ways. The word “dual” means “having two aspects,” as in “dual personalities.” The word “duel” means “a fight or contest between two people or parties.” Often, such a contest is one of life and death, but it can also be something as simple as a duel being conducted by playing a board game.