Fill in the Blanks

Cited is 'quoted as a reason'.

The idiom 'salt of the earth' refers to people who are fundamentally decent, honest, reliable, and worthy of respect - the backbone of society. The phrase comes from the Bible (Matthew 5:13) where salt represents value and preservation. It describes people of excellent character and humility.

The idiom 'warmed the cockles of my heart' means something gave you great pleasure, joy, or touched you emotionally. The 'cockles' are chambers of the heart, and the phrase suggests something that deeply gladdened or comforted you. A Swiss vacation brought the speaker great happiness.

The idiom 'none of someone's beeswax' means something is not their business or concern - it's a playful variation of 'none of someone's business'. The sentence states that the speaker's personal decisions are private matters that don't concern others. However, there's a grammatical issue - it should be 'others' beeswax' (possessive plural), not 'other's'.

The phrase 'goods and chattels' is a legal term referring to all of someone's personal property and possessions. 'Goods' are movable property, and 'chattels' is a legal term for personal property. Margaret left with all her belongings and possessions.

(3) is most meaningful as it points out that given the 'cheerfulness' of conventional accounts of their religion, the philosophers 'hatred' is what is surprising. Hence, (3) is the answer.

The clause following 'Jesuits' is in contrast to what precedes it. It forms a cause-effect relationship and the effect is negative as we can make out from the latter part of the sentence. All the options for the first blank fit our prediction. Now, let's try for the second blank. 'Embroiled' and 'entangled', both mean involved, which leaves us with these 2 options (1) and (3). 'Foursquare' means frank, honest, forthright whereas 'skullduggery' means dishonesty, which is cogent with political in the sentence. Hence, (3) is the answer.

'Unpretentious' means simple, prosaic, therefore, it replaces the 1st blank. Hence, (4) is the answer. 

'Freemason' is a member of an international freethinking male society having as the principles brotherliness, charity and mutual aid. As 'speculative' and 'inquisitive' both fit our prediction for first blank, thus, we are left with 2 options - (2) and (3). The operative word for second blank is 'rise'. As 'veteran' means experienced, practiced, thus 'apprentices' (any learner or beginner) replaces the second blank. Hence, (2) is the answer.

“Essential' contrasts with 'accidental' as a type of property (a 'deliberate' property is absurd). Hence, (4) is the answer.

The first part of the sentence implies that the impact of the publication of the essays about the presidential campaigns is less than what it might have been, had it been published either earlier or much later than at present. If it had been published earlier, it would had the merit of topicality. If it had been published much later, it would have had historical value. The pair of words which gives this meaningful sense to the sentence is in (4), which is the answer. (you could also have approached the question with the argument that the phrases 'historical anxiety', 'historical consistency', 'historical skepticism' and 'historical respect' do not make sense and that 'historical curiosity' is the only possible choice for the second missing word).

The absolute qualities in art cannot frighten us or confuse us but can only edify (meaing instruct; educate) or elude (meaning evade; escape) us. So, (2) and (3) can be ruled out from the point of view of the suitability of the first missing word alone, leaving only (1) and (4) for examination. The phrase 'in an exemplar of time and circumstance' does not make the same eminent sense as 'in a context of time and circumstance'. So, (4) is a much better choice than (1), hence the answer.

One can easily see that word ‘fixed’ as given by option (1) validly fits in all the given sentences, therefore, option (1) is correct answer.

In all the given blanks, the word that validly fits in each of the question is option (2) that is flashed. Therefore, correct answer for this question is option (2).

The only word which fits in all the given sentences is ‘glance’, which marks option (4) as the correct answer.