Correct Answer: confront

Explanation:

We are looking for the opposite of ‘side-step’ (avoid) and so ‘confront’ is the obvious choice.

Correct Answer: B,E,G

Explanation:

Since the problems posed are abstract and complex it is unlikely that we would need words like ‘dogma’ and ‘certitudes’ which would imply that the ideas are fixed. However, if we take ‘dilemmas’ (quandaries or difficult choices) then it becomes easy to see that a thought experiment might clarify (illuminate) the dilemma in a simple manner that removed all unnecessary (extraneous) factors. (Pivotal – essential; inherent – inbuilt)

Correct Answer: C,F,G

Explanation:

If the conclusion might not stand up, it suggests that the conclusion was a bad one. If we select ‘hasty’ for this second blank, then it is easy to see that the thinking was done ‘too quickly’ and that ‘slower’ scrutiny would reveal the error. (Precipitous – hurried; warily – cautiously)

Correct Answer:  passive

Explanation:

The key here is that the pieces are inert or ‘passive’.

Correct Answer: C,D

Explanation:

Since the changes are abrupt, the word ‘jerkily’ is best. Since axioms (taken as true) and continuities do not change, we are left with ‘paradigms’ (models, or ways of looking at things).

Correct Answer: B,E

Explanation:

The book is obviously a risk to publish and the publishers are unwilling to take all the risk. To ‘shoulder’ the risk means to bear the risk. And the book would be risky if it were ‘controversial’. Be careful to read the choices carefully as ‘unexceptionable’ means ‘cannot be objected to’ and is the opposite of what we need, but some people misunderstand it to mean ‘unacceptable’.

Correct Answer:   A,F,I

Explanation:

If the phenomenon is rare it cannot be pervasive (widespread). If we choose ‘devastating’ then we need to fill the second blank with a word that implies very harmful to match ‘devastating’; of the choices, only ‘complete’ works. For the final blank we need a word to contrast with ‘stress-induced’ because we are talking about memory loss (amnesia) caused by stress and comparing it to another type of amnesia. The best choice would be ‘physical’ trauma to contrast with the mental trauma implied in ‘stress-induced’.

Correct Answer: C,D,H

Explanation:

One of the key words is ‘predictions’ suggesting that we are dealing with fortunetellers or forecasters not philosophers. Next we are told that the mind makes sense of things that have no meaning. Of the choices given, the best word in front of ‘meaning’ is ‘special’. Now we can see that the sentence means that what clairvoyants (people who claim to see the future or to have links with the supernatural) tell people is difficult to prove wrong (specious) because the mind tries to attribute significance to predictions that are not significant (special).

Correct Answer: C , D

Explanation:

The clue is in the words ‘less obviously’ which implies that whatever we say about Miton and Housman will apply ‘less obviously’ to Dylan. Hence we are looking for two words of similar meaning. We could say that Milton and Housman are established figures whereas it is less obvious that the poetry of Dylan is ‘established’. If by established we mean accepted as having literary merit, then the partner word is obviously ‘canonical’, which means exactly that.
(Arcane – known only to a few; judicious – fair, apt; obscurantist – tending to make things difficult to see)

Correct Answer:  insurmountable

Explanation:

If Bannister broke a barrier he did something that others had not done; the hurdle that he overcame would inspire others to overcome barriers that seemed impossible. The word closest to ‘impossible’ is ‘insurmountable’, which literally means ‘cannot be overcome.
(Inane – foolish; trivial – unimportant; ineffable – cannot be expressed in words)