The “penultimate” position is the second from last. If the two men talking are the last and the second from last, our speaking man is the “penultimate” man.  To be “annoyed” is to be vexed, a word derived from related Latin roots meaning to annoy and reflected in the related word “vexation.”

That the survey on the congressman's popularity was negative provides a strong clue that his reaction would be negative. This matches his desire to suppress it, and "induce" is the only word that makes contextual sense for the latter portion of the sentence. So, the correct answer is "suppress . . . induce."

The key to this question is the phrase "wasn't necessary," which indicates that he spoke about nonessential ("extraneous") information. Thus he needed to shorten his speech, or make it more "concise."

"Countenance" and "demeanor" could both work for the first blank. That James was doing the opposite of bragging gives a strong contextual clue that the second word will be similar to honest. This is exactly what "forthright" means.

"Incredulous" means shocked or indicating disbelief, and "amiably" means acting in a friendly or agreeable manner, so "incredulous . . . amiably" is the correct answer because its words best fit the sentence's context.

That Larry considers the promoted coworker to be inferior to himself tells us that his emotions towards this coworker should be negative. "Furious" and "distraught" are each potentially correct choices for the first blank, because "furious" is synonymous with enraged and "distraught" is synonymous with upset. This leaves "resigning" or "acquiring" as options for the second's second blank. "Resign" means to give up one's position, and "acquire" means obtain or receive, so "resign" makes more sense because this is clearly a situation where Larry is considering leaving the company.

The contrast in this sentence is with “relatively simple problems.” Although less simple problems would be perhaps more obscure or of greater length, the most direct contrasting option is “complexity.” The word is derived from Latin roots that literally mean “folded over (itself).” The “folding” portion of this meaning is found in the “-plex,” which is related not only to “perplex” but also “plait” and “pleat.” In addition to its common noun usage, the word “progress” can also be used as a verb meaning to go forward. The “pro-” portion means “forward,” while the “-gress” is derived from the Latin for to step. The latter is found in English words like “regress,” “transgress,” and “digression.”

The phrase “not only . . . but also” requires two words that have similar meanings. Both blanks require a word that means “important” or “valuable.” The only answer that satisfies these requirements is "valuable . . . vital."

The first blank requires a word that means “to conceal” or to “to hide.” Furthermore, the phrase “rather than” indicates the correct answer will have a word pair that is opposite in meaning. “Admit” is opposite the meaning of “conceal,” therefore this is the correct answer. 

The hints in these sentences indicate that the text was planned to be very “in depth”—“soaring expectations” met with, instead, some sort of “pitiful . . . outline.” If something is “magisterial” it has or shows great authority. This can work well for the opposition made between that and being “unconvincing,” if the latter term is taken in the sense of “lacking authority.” In any case, the other cases imply other shades of meaning not included in the sentence. The term “magisterial” comes from the Latin for “teacher” and is found likewise in the word “magistrate.”