In this sentence, it is really a matter of knowing the vocabulary, though you can likely eliminate several options as being a bit too limited. The most tempting wrong answers are both “contribution” and perhaps (if one thinks too much) “waiver.” Strictly speaking, the latter would imply more than what is said in the sentence. Against the option of “contribution,” the word “stipend” is better, as it means “a fixed salary, payment, or allowance.” “Contribution” is more vague than “stipend,” and therefore is less acceptable.

If something is “anachronistic,” it does not really belong in its given time period. Sometimes, the adjective can merely mean that something is old-fashioned, but it often is used to indicate the situation when someone describes something in one time period according to the customs or historical contingencies of another period. The prefix “ana-” comes from the Greek preposition meaning “backward” (among other things). The familiar “-chronistic” comes from the Greek word for time and has familiar English derivatives (such as “chronological”).

While “dilettante” may be related to the sentence and appear a potential choice, it indicates a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as food, but without any real commitment, only dabbling in it. The sentence indicates that the person in question has a knowledge more extensive than the rest of the group, so “epicure” is the more suitable answer choice.

A "cacophony" is a clamor or harsh noise, which is implied by "disruptive" and "resonating."

The adjective “veritable” is used to intensify noun that it describes. It could be translated “quite truly.” (It is related to words like “verity”, “veridical”, and “verify.” All of these come from the Latin "verus," meaning true.) Since the room was deadly in its heat, it is best called an "inferno," at least metaphorically speaking. An inferno is generally a large fire. The word is related to the late Latin word for “Hell.” It communicates the idea of great amounts of heat and does so without the “health benefits” that are somewhat connoted by “sauna.”

"Heresy” is dissent or deviation from the accepted norm, especially in a religious sense.

A “quagmire” is a swamp or a conundrum or tricky situation. The swamp is used as a metaphor for a problem or challenge for which one gets "mired in."

An ”antidote” is a remedy that reverses the effects of a poison or venom.

The key to this question is the participial phrase "removing much of the wonder." The implication is that modernity made the world appear "bleak" like equations of physics. By stripping it of its wonder, it made it quite plain and without poetic meaning—at least the sentence claims this. This is not necessarily to destroy the world, and it does not make much sense to say that it depressed the world. (Perhaps it depressed the people.) The word "disenchanted" (or "disenchantment") can be used merely to describe a person who has become disillusioned or has lost interests. It can also describe, in an extended sense, the thing that was disenchanted—the world, which had lost its appearance of being wonderful.

The general idea of this sentence is that the given plan or idea "looked good on paper," though it did not make much sense when you actually tried to do it. Now, this does not mean it is on physical paper. (Hence, "textbook" is not necessarily called for.) What we mean is that "taken in consideration that ignores the details of reality's facts" the idea seemed excellent. Such consideration is made "in the abstract" (as opposed to the concrete). The word "tractor" comes from a similar Latin base meaning "to pull". To "ab"+"stract" is to "pull away from [the details]". The prefix "ab-" means, of course, "away from" (e.g. "absent").