Sadlier Unit 11 Choosing the Right Word

In a series of __________ attacks now known as the Philippics, Cicero launched his entire battery of political invective against the hapless Mark Anthony.

• searing

• contingent

• discursive

• specious

We are most likely to fall victim to __________ reasoning when we have an emotional desire to believe what we are being told.

• discursive

• specious

• foisting

• abstemious

The article described the success of an undercover sting operation in catching the swindler who was __________ fake diamonds on his customers.

• foisting

• searing

• heresies

• denizens

The most tragic aspect of a forest fire is its destructive effects on the innumerable plant and animal __________ of that environment.

• heresies

• denizens

• abstemious

• gauche

He thought he was being witty and charming, but I regard his conduct at the party as altogether __________.

• abstemious

• gauche

• palpable

Modern nutritionists emphasize that there is a(n) __________ difference between “eating to live” and “living to eat.”

• palpable

• abstemious

• contingent

• pernicious

The more we studied the drug problem, the more we became aware of its __________ influence on the American people today.

• contingent

• pernicious

• heresies

• disseminations

The study of history teaches us that many ideas regarded as __________ by one generation are accepted as sound and orthodox by the next.

• heresies

• disseminations

• specious

• dowdy

Some English rulers were strikingly elegant and imposing figures; others were somewhat __________ and unprepossessing.

• specious

• dowdy

• searing

• contingent

No doubt his efforts to advance his own interests were __________, but let's try to keep a sense of proportion and not condemn him too much.

• censurable

• florid

• perceptive

• abstemious