1. Discussions of impending water shortages are often couched in apocalyptic rhetoric, yet if the language is somewhat_，the basic message is sound: Water is indeed scarce and growing scarcer.
　　A. abstract
　　B. complacent
　　C. ambiguous
　　D. unfamiliar
　　E. overblown
　　2. Reading chunks of Shapiro's verse in one sitting, it must be said, exposes the _____ nature of his writing: scads of poems are too glancing to strike a nerve, scarcely worth a second reading.
　　A. jejune
　　B. esoteric
　　C. corrosive
　　D. finicky
　　F. indiscreet
　　3. So perhaps the lesson is that rather than wanting their monarchy to (i)_____its modernized Scandinavian counterparts, the British public cherishes it most when it is most (ii)_____·

Blank(i)	Blank(ii)
discount	egalitarian
emulate	anachronistic
commend	regal

　　4. While the writer was best known for her much-ballyhooed___，her impact reaches far beyond memorable quips.
　　A. stoicism
　　B. fastidiousness
　　C. congeniality
　　D. drollness
　　E. pensiveness
　　5. Regardless of the putative decline of (i)____in contemporary culture, such (ii)_______remains essential to civil discourse. It allows people to avoid embarrassing or maligning an adversary and it serves as a form of irony that draws attention to a problem that can scarcely be exaggerated.

Blank(i)	Blank(ii)
understatement	inventiveness
originality	objectivity
partisanship	restraint

　　6. Much of the newspaper's readership found it hard to (i)___the allegations of venality laid against the superintendent, since these readers were still (ii)___the superintendent's reputation for (iii)____.The superintendent's subsequent vindication will have come as no surprise to them.

Blank(i)	Blank(ii)	Blank(iii)
ignore	swayed by	grouchiness
credit	unaware of	probity
dismiss	learning about	creativity

　　7. Since the data we have analyzed are so ____,it would be hazardous to draw a definite conclusion.
　　A. copious;
　　B. overwhelming
　　C. abundant
　　D. meager
　　E. paltry
　　F. uncertain
　　8. As a way of ____the negative impacts of overdependence on a single export product --crude oil--the Nigerian government passed legislation in 1999 intended to revitalize the moribund solid minerals sector.
　　A. assuming
　　B. checking
　　C. disguising
　　D. stemming
　　E. downplaying
　　F. shouldering
　　9. Although the claim that no one knows what dark matter is remains ____，some scientists dispute the parallel assertion that dark matter has not been detected.
　　A. contentious
　　B. sound
　　C. questionable
　　D. unassailable
　　E. unverifiable
　　F. prominent
　　10. Appearing in the midst of so many equivocal comments, this unambiguous statement, whatever its intrinsic merit, plainly stands out as____.
　　A. anomalous
　　B. arcane
　　C. irrelevant
　　D. superfluous
　　E. unusual
　　F. esoteric