"Inconceivable" means impossible to comprehend or grasp fully, while "mundane" means concerned with the world rather than with spiritual things or commonplace. Evidently, for many, Robert's concern with the world makes his life incomprehensibly commonplace, so "inconceivably . . . mundane" is the correct answer.

"Unpredictable" means difficult to foretell or foresee, while "frenetic" means hectic or frantic. It is very reasonable to conclude that a young nephew running at a hectic pace would have a bedtime which is difficult to anticipate, dependent upon his pace subsiding.

The correct answer points to the complex nature of the writing that the author usually uses in his academic writing ("highfalutin") and how it made it overly difficult for an average person to understand ("arcane"). The incorrect answers fail to work in both categories; either they assert that the writing is not highbrow ("prosaic" and "unadorned") or that the audience believes that the book is too simple ("unembellished" and "facile").

The contrast in this sentence is between “rigid logic” and the second blank. The word “heuristic” (particularly in computer science) means _a loose rule—_often explained as being a “rule of thumb.” Such devices help to simulate some scenario but not with the certainty of mathematical logic. For those who are used to such rigid logic, the development of such “heuristics” can be very difficult and perplexing—hence the choice word for the first blank.

For the first blank, we are looking for a word that has to do with getting angry because this person was “fuming.” For the second, we can infer that the directions were not very good because this person got lost. The answer choice with "irascible . . . nebulous" is the only that fits because irascible means easily angered, while "nebulous" means vague.

A "sophisticated" work is one that is very complex, requiring much experience and knowledge to navigate. Although the word is distantly related to the Greek root “sophia,” meaning wisdom (and found in words like “philosophy”), “sophisticated” had a long development through more negative connotations (partially related to usages like “sophistical”). These are not reflected in our usage here.

“Colloquial” means related to ordinary speech. Its root is derived from the Latin for “to speak or talk,” which has many derivatives in English, not only including those with the “c” that we see in “interlocutors” (e.g. "locution," "allocution"), but also the more common (and phonetically related) “q” (e.g. "eloquence," "loquacious," "colloquium"). The prefix “col-” really is derived from the Latin “cum,” meaning with. Colloquial language is the language one uses to “speak with” others of similar backgrounds and upbringings.

“Unattainable . . . discouraging” does not fit since the sentence indicates that the author did get the manuscript published, so he did attain a goal, and yes, that was discouraging but we need a word that relates to why the media lost interest so quickly.

“Onerous . . . gratifying” starts well since onerous does mean difficult and a struggle but why then would the situation be gratifying which means satisfying?

“Vexatious . . . querulous” sounds most promising since vexing could mean struggling as in working out a puzzle and “quer” is a root found in words like inquiry, question and query which indicates that an answer is sought.

“Oblique . . . laudable” does not seem to work in the sentence. “Oblique” is interesting since it might indicate an unusual direction as related to fame but “laudable” includes the Latin word root “laud.” The word refers to praise as in a laudable effort, laudatory and laugh which indicates merriment.

“Irascible . . . subtle” does not seem to work since irascible sounds like irritate, irate and ire which all relate to anger. Anger is different from a struggle and subtle does not relate to the media losing interest quickly.

The easier blank to discern is the second. Since the household was “unstable,” all we can say is that the parents were either “inconsistent” or perhaps “rash.” The other options are not necessarily implied by the context; however, “gregarious” means sociable, which doesn’t make sense in this context. “Submissive” is much better, for it means ready to conform to authority—something that Thomas would not be ready to do, given the details of the rest of the sentence.

The implication of the sentence is that John remained greedy after the lottery, feeling the need to accumulate money, although he did not need to do so. Such a person is called “rapacious,” a word related to the English word “rapt,” which means “having one’s attention utterly taken. The sense of “taken” (or, more distantly, “grabbing”) comes from the Latin base shared between “rapt” and “rapacious.” Someone who is rapacious is one who is constantly “grabbing” after more money or physical goods. A lavish lifestyle is one that is very luxurious. It is derived from the Latin word that gives us “lavatory,” originally meaning “wash room.” Someone who lives a lavish lifestyle is—so to speak—showered with goods.

For the second blank, we can infer that we're looking for an adjective that means "profitable" because we know that the captain's scheme increased his profits threefold. Of the possible choices, "fruitful" and "successful" could each work. For the first blank, we're looking for an adjective that describes this captain's dishonest nature; either "corrupt" or "fraudulent" could work. Of the potential answer choices we've identified, only "corrupt" and "fruitful" line up in a single answer choice, so the answer is "corrupt . . . fruitful."