A “respite” is a short period of rest after something unpleasant—such as the constant barrage of questions and presentations.

A “malediction” is a vocal expression of meaning to bring a curse or evil on to someone. It is derived from the Latin “malus,” meaning bad or evil and “dicere” meaning to speak.  Related words for the former are “malady” and “malice,” and the latter has many, such as “diction”, “dictionary”, and “dictator.”

The key word is “around” (and this allows you to eliminate the potentially tempting “meanderings,” though that would be a redundant usage given the antecedent “meandering”). The word means to walk around in a circular fashion. It is derived from the Latin “circum” and “loqui.” The former means “around” or “about” and is reflected in many English words (“circumference”, “circumnavigate”, etc). “Loqui” means to speak or to tell. English derivatives are not only words with “loq” (like “colloquial” or “eloquent”) but also words with the related sound “loc” (like “locution” or “interlocutor”).

The key is that Jeremy buys many texts and likewise searches for them; therefore, the best word is “bibliophile” which captures this compulsion. It is derived from two Greek roots that are very familiar to us in other contexts. “Biblio-” is derived from Greek for book and is reflected in English words like “bibliography” and “bible.” The second half comes from the Greek words for love of friendship or merely friendship. The city of Philadelphia is named from Greek brotherly love. (The “brotherly” portion comes from "adelphos," brother).

This sentence is not very difficult and only slightly hides the correct answer. Had it said that he assaulted “his mother,” it would have been extremely easy. The correct answer is “matricide.”

The first half comes from the Latin for mother. (Think of related words like “maternal”). The second half comes from Latin for “to kill.” (Think of related words like sui + cide—to kill oneself—or homo + cide—to kill a human being).

A pedant displays knowledge excessively (and hence is really tiresome for a student, who might not need to have such shows of details all the time). The word is related to “pedagogue,” which is derived from the Greek for teacher, but it has taken on these additional shades of meaning.

The man needs time that is not as interactive with others after he has had his social contact; therefore, he needs “solitude,” a word derived from Latin bases meaning “alone,” “single,” and “only.”

The opposition implied in this sentence is between our blank and "revolts." The opposite of a situation of turmoil would be one that is wholly at standstill. (This is likewise indicated by “a time of total inactivity” in the second sentence). The best option is "stasis," which is directly derived from a Greek word with a similar meaning. It is reflected in words that likewise have “stat-” in their root, such as “static” and “statue.”

Clearly, we want no negative connotations in our answer, so this helps to eliminate everything other than “interlocutors” and “preachers.” The latter is rather bland and does not fit anywhere nearly as well as “interlocutor,” which means “a person in a conversation.”

The prefix “inter-” indicates that the word involves “between” (such as intervarsity or interstitial)—NOT to be confused with “intra,” which means “within” (such as “intramural,” which literally means within the walls). The second half, “-locutors,” is derived from the Latin for to speak or talk, which has many derivatives in English not only including those with the “c” that we see in “interlocutors” (e.g. locution, allocution) but also the more common (and phonetically related) “q” (e.g. eloquence, loquacious, colloquium, colloquial).

The key is that the student’s theory reduces everything to one. Such a theory is “monistic,” a word derived from the Greek monos, meaning “single,” which we see in words like “monocle,” “monogamy,” and “monotonous.”