Nexus means -

We might start with the particular, identifying those institutions and initiatives that embody altruistic instincts and especially the mission to help the most vulnerable.

Altruistic means -

________ is an adjective that means expensive, excessive, and over the top. A modest chandelier in your dining room is normal. But crystal-studded walls and gold-plated goblets? That's a bit ________.

You are ________ when filled with delight and wonder at something, to the point where time seems to stand still. Creators of day time soap operas count on viewers being ________ to make their money.

If one teacher gives you three hours of homework a night, that's rough. But if all of your teachers do it, that makes the task of completing your homework an ________ one, to say the least. If something is ________, it is very difficult to deal with or do.

I felt so contrite when I saw the disappointment in his eyes.

Contrite means -

The lines showing internal laminations, said to be primordial sedimentary layers, actually show where those waters percolated through the buried rocks.

Primordial means -

The opposite of encrypt is:

With history before us, it is no treason to question the ________ of a court; for courts are never wiser or more venerable than the men composing them, and a decision that reverses precedent cannot arrogate to itself any immunity from reversal.

The rich benefited from the new industry and from Great Britain’s burgeoning empire.

Burgeoning means -

Ronald Franz (this is not his real name; at his request I have given him a _______) looks remarkably sturdy for a man in his ninth decade who has survived two heart attacks.

a long wandering and eventful journey

Westerberg had been drawn into a scheme to build and sell "black boxes,” which illegally unscramble satellite-television transmissions, allowing people to watch ______ cable programming without paying for it.

If McCandless felt _____from his parents and siblings, he found a surrogate family in Westerberg and his employees, most of whom lived in Westerberg's Carthage home.