“Ribaldry” is being indecent or vulgar. A “gaffe” is a mistake made in front of others. Neither of these words fit in the second blank. “Perpetuated” and “protracted” suggests that they lengthened the amount of time the meeting took, which would have been an unwise decision. “Decorum” is proper behavior. “Adjourned . . . decorum” is the correct answer.

“Engender,” which originally meant for life forms to procreate, now carries the meaning of producing or causing to happen. “Annals” comes from a Latin word that means year. “Annals” can refer to year-by-year chronological records, or it can refer to general recorded history, such as the phrase “annals of history.” “Engenders . . . annals” is the best answer.

In case you were wondering, to “bulwark” is to defend against something with a protective wall. When someone is a “fanatic,” they are really excited about something, so much in fact that they might come off as a little crazy. To “ambush” is to suddenly come out from your hiding place and attack someone. “Fanatic . . . ambush” is the correct answer.

“Expurgation” means to purge or cleanse moral offensiveness, so it doesn’t really apply here. From the answer choices, there is only one combination that fits. “Ablution” is a washing of oneself for hygienic or religious purposes. “Disperse” means to scatter. “Ablution . . . dispersed” is the correct answer.

The word "edifice" means "building." When we "edify" someone with our words, we "build them up." Clearly, this building is "new," and the group is planning to build it, so it is not yet built; therefore, it makes sense to say that the group is carefully planning to erect the building. That is, they are looking to build it—one of the meanings of the verb "to erect." Since the group "carefully"planned this work, it is not fair to say that they made their decision hastily without planning. Instead, it is much better say that they made it without much deliberation—that is, without much "back and forth" discussion. This does not mean that it was ill-planned but, instead, merely that there was little arguing or discussion concerning the matter.

The best clue in this sentence is the word "fail." The young man's anger apparently caused him to fail at achieving any of his goals or intentions. "Aspirations" are hopes or dreams. The word comes from the Latin roots for "hope," namely spes. This is a decent synonym for "intentions." Whenever something prevents or destroys the possibility of someone achieving something good, that person has his or her's good intentions "vitiated." This is what the young man's anger did.

An "iconoclast" is a person who destroys religious imagery or attacks established beliefs. The word comes from Middle Greek and literally means "image-destroyer" (from "eikono," image, and "klan," to break). To "purge" means to cause a removal, often of a defiling or unwanted substance. Many individuals involved in the Protestant Reformation took issue with the use of religious icons, and in some cases caused their removal or destruction.

The clue for the first blank is "continued to imitate" ("emulate"); the clue for the second blank is "kind and generous nature" ("magnanimity").

“Mitigate . . . inauguration” is not a bad choice. “Mitigate” means to make milder or to lessen the force or influence; however, the word choice of “significant” and reference to the “printing press” implies that this will be a greater development than to simply “mitigate.” This will be revolutionary. It will take over. Thus, “supplant . . . advent” is the best answer.

We can tell from the context of the sentence that for the first blank, we're looking for a verb that means something like "praising." Of the available choices, either "describing" or "extolling" ("praising enthusiastically") could work. For the second blank, we need a noun that describes something that is supposedly able to cure lots of problems. Either "cure-all" or "panacea" ("a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases") could be correct. Of the possible words that we've identified as potentially correct for each blank, only "extolling" and "panacea" appear in the same answer choice, so the correct answer is "extolling . . . panacea."