The key word is “hale,” meaning strong or healthy. The focus therefore is upon Kenneth’s physical safety in spite of his bad habits of not paying heed to the traffic; therefore, the best word would be “unscathed”, meaning without experiencing harm or injury.

To be without stain is to be “immaculate.” The word comes from the Latin word “macula,” meaning stain or spot. The negative prefix “im-” indicates that the person is free from spots or stains.

Strictly speaking, to be “languid” is to lack the inclination or desire to undertake physical exertion. It therefore often has a certain negative overtone to it (implying laziness of some sort); however, it can also mean that someone is weak from sickness, as in this case.

Related English words are “languish” and “languor.”

If something is “sylvan,” it is related to forests or trees. The word ultimately is derived from the Latin “silva,” meaning forest. Its related English words are rarely used in daily discourse: “silviculture” (meaning the practice of maintaining forests) and “silvology” (meaning the study of forests).

If a group is unfamiliar with the outside world, they are often isolated in their mental habits. Such a group is called “insular” because they live as though they were on an island. The word “insular” is indeed derived from the Latin word for “island,” namely, “insula.” Related English words are “insulation” and “peninsula.” 

Do not be fooled by the option “humanist”, which really means having a philosophy or approach to learning that places the study of man, his culture, and life first. If someone is a humanist, they do not necessarily wish to aid other humans (though they might be readily inclined that way); however, someone with “humanitarian” sympathies is such a person who wishes to help in the betterment of the human condition for others.

Although many of the options are tempting here, the key phrase is “in direct proportion to the number of words . . .” If someone is “verbose,” he or she expresses something in more words than necessary. The word is clearly related to many other “word-related” words such as “verbal,” “verb,” “verbatim,” and “proverb.”

If someone is parsimonious, he or she is either frugal or even stingy. The word is derived from a Latin base meaning to be sparing and is found in the English word “parsimony.” Although this latter word often has the same economic sense as “parsimonious”, it often is used in the expression “principle of parsimony”, which indicates a class of principles used to decide the best hypothesis in a given situation by judging which has the least number of assumptions or presuppositions.

The key expression here is “having little real content.” The words were therefore empty or “vacuous,” a word with clearly related terms like “vacuum” and “vacuity.”

Since the group fears publicity, they must wish to meet in secret. Particularly given the potential negative overtones associated with their work (see “controversies”), the word “clandestinely” meets the needs of this sentence very well. To do something clandestinely means to do it secretly, particularly because it is unseemly or perhaps even illegal.