The paper's _____ reports about local officials caused us to question their honesty.

• fastidious

• revered

• spurious

• pithy

• trite

The _____ being spread about our new manager is simply the malicious _____ of a disgruntled employee.

• derision . . . trepidation

• prevarication . . . approbation

• calumny . . . fabrication

• accolade . . . veneration

• equivocation . . . ruthlessness

Mothers have a knack for ferreting out the truth from _____ tales no matter how _____ our defense.

• chary . . . clandestine

• succinct . . . verbose

• judicious . . . credulous

• specious . . . voluble

• stringent . . . eulogizing

The astronaut's smile _____ her concern over the new space venture.

• belies

• supercilious

• acclaims

• vilifies

• incites

The document was examined and found to be _____ and the work of a(n) _____.

• intractable . . . hedonist

• ironic . . . authoritarian

• laudable . . . fraud

• precocious . . . prevaricator

• apocryphal . . . charlatan

I just love Dad's _____ descriptions of his fishing expeditions; his _____ are worth some good-natured teasing.

• fabricated . . . malapropisms

• caustic . . . diatribes

• taciturn . . . tales

• loquacious . . . embellishments

• enigmatic . . . tirades

A master of _____, Krystin never reveals her true intentions.

• alacrity

• deprecates

• equivocation

• calumny

• deference

abrupt in manner

• contemptuous

• insolent

• vitriolic

• brusque

mislead with vague language

• equivocate

• fabricate

• embellish

• prevaricate

elaborate

• apocryphal

• specious

• spurious

• embellish