Since Peter expected no surprises, it is safe to assume that he believed his list to be absolutely complete. The word “exhaustive” literally means “to drain out completely” in the sense of “examining every aspect.” When someone is “exhausted,” all of his or her energy has been trained. We likewise say that (for example) all options are exhausted when there are no more remaining.

The implication of the sentence is that the version of the text being assigned is a shortened version, “containing only the essential passages of the story.” An abridgment of a story is a shortened version of it, often claimed to contain the “essential passages.” The word “abridge” is related to other “shortening” words like “abbreviate,” “brief,” and “brevity.”

Since Justine was said to develop her abilities, the implication in the opposition-indicating “although” clause is that she did not have these naturally. An “innate” ability is literally one that is “inborn” or natural. It comes from the Latin word for “to be born,” which is found in English words like “nativity” and “natal.”

Since Ronald’s lump was the result of a chance, external event, it was not a trait that he had naturally. The sentence clearly implies that the word needed must be opposed to the accidental manner by which he received the lump. Therefore, it is best said that people believed that it was an inborn characteristic.

The opposition being implied here is between an orderly, systematic approach and one that gathers things somewhat haphazardly. We cannot say that Mary’s approach is necessarily flippant or frivolous; however, it is fair to say that such a non-systematic approach is “eclectic,” which means “gathering from a broad number of sources,” often implying that this gathering is done without a single unifying principle (except perhaps in the tastes of the one gathering).

The opposition here is between someone who privately cannot speak well or articulately but apparently can do so when in a crowd. When someone can communicate articulately (and convincingly), such a person is said to be “eloquent.” The word is derived from Latin roots meaning “to speak,” found in English terms like “elocution,” “colloquy,” and “colloquial.”

The key word here is “magnify,” which implies that Matthew’s handwriting was not merely sloppy but also small. The word “minuscule,” (often spelled “miniscule”), means “very small.” Clearly, it contains the root related to “mini-”, meaning “small;” however, the original usage was applied to small letters in Roman script (as opposed to forms of script that was written in capital letters or “uncials”).

Since the librarian wants information that is accurate in students' papers, she most likely reminds students to choose credible or trustworthy sources.

We can infer that we need to pick an adjective for the blank that means something like "shortened," since the rest of the sentence informs us that this particular edition of the book is missing certain chapters which full-length versions of the work include. While both "truncated" and "abridged" mean "shortened," "truncated" specifically means "shortened by having cut off the top or the end," while "abridged" refers to written works and means "shortened without having lost the sense of the original." "Abridged" fits the context of the sentence better than "truncated," since the sentence is discussing a book and "abridged" specifically refers to written works, so "abridged" is the correct answer.

In opposition to being calm and understanding, Michael must have expected his father to be very angry about the accident. In that case, his father could have been said to be “livid,” meaning “extremely angry” or “furious.” The word “livid” has a strange history that cannot be traced briefly, but it is related the Latin for “blue or blue-gray” (a meaning retained in English as well). Although the relationship is not this simple, it can help you to remember this by thinking of the blue-red face of someone who is very angry.