Directions: The question below has two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Choose the set of words for each blank that best fits in the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

The author presumably believes that all businessmen are ______, for her main characters, whatever qualities they may lack, are virtual paragons of ______.

The author mentioned in this sentence believes that businessmen are models of some quality; whatever qualities they may lack implies that whatever bad points they possess; there’s this one particular good thing about them. The best possible choice that fits our prediction is (1) — if an author's main characters are businessmen and if they're all paragons of ingenuity (meaning inventively talented), one could easily lead to the presumption that the author thinks all businessmen are clever. Hence, (1) is the answer.