Tacky, tactful, tactically.

The judgmental mind behind this sentence finds his grandmother’s décor “vulgar,” so the first blank should be a synonym for that. Tacky fits the bill. For the second blank, you need a word that describes what it is not to tell your grandmother you find all her knick-knacks ugly. Rancorous is the opposite of what you want, and doting, meaning “be extremely fond of,” goes too far. Tactful fits perfectly. For the third blank, you need a word that describes being nice to someone in order to get a good birthday present. Amicable doesn’t capture the strategy of it, but duplicitous is way too negative (it means “deceitful,” which is not really an apt description for the act of refraining from telling your grandma that she has terrible taste). Tactically, meaning “by way of showing adroit planning,” is correct.

Decry.

Decry is “to speak disparagingly” and parallels the clue, “curse.” None of the other choices are justified by the meaning of the text.

Mask, part and parcel. The sentence says that people who work in the service industry put on a smile for the customer, implying that they hide their true emotions in some way. Masquerade is close, but it means either “to pretend to be someone” or “to be disguised as something else.” Neither of these are quite right, so the correct word is mask. For the second blank, you need something like a requirement. Apex is a high point (i.e., “The apex of my career was playing for the Knicks.”). Conceit means a fanciful notion. Part and parcel, meaning “an essential piece of something,” is the correct phrase.

Layperson, guesswork, a crack.

You are told that the plumber is not professional, so you need a word for the first blank that is the opposite of “professional.” A layperson is a non-professional. For the second blank, you need a word describing how a non-professional would work. Rote implies experience, and by numbers means “following simple instructions,” which is illogical because there’s no reason to believe the layperson plumber has any instructions. Guesswork means he’s just guessing what to do, which makes the most sense. Finally, since the plumber successfully and quickly fixed everything, you need a word in the third blank that means “good.” Crack means “very good.” Extortionate means “overly expensive”; there’s no reason to believe someone is good just because they’re overpriced.

Disenfranchisement, suffrage.

The sentence gives you two examples involving the restriction of voting rights. Disenfranchisement is the deprivation of the right to vote, which fits best with the topic. Similarly, suf rage is the right to vote, and is the correct word for the second blank.

Land, a plum.

The first blank needs to be a synonym of get. Ascertain doesn’t make sense, and ensure is used incorrectly — the actress might want to ensure that she gets the part, but it doesn’t make sense to say that she wants to ensure the part itself. The second blank should describe a role with lots of onscreen time and good scenes; you need a synonym for good. That’s exactly what plum means.

Puffery.

The words of the attendants are described as the unctuous chatter of toadies, which basically means “the sucking up of people who suck up a lot.” While blather is empty talk, and confabulation is invented talk, only puf ery means “exaggerated or false praise,” which is exactly what you want here.

Rail against.

This sentence shows you that the authors of the book come up with many examples against those who see a paradigm for monogamy. Both skitter around and pass over would imply the authors fail to find examples, and conspire with is the opposite of what you want. Rail means “complain or protest strongly,” and is correct here.

Specter.

For this sentence, it’s important that you know that nuclear holocaust never actually occurred, so it was only a threat that was a daily part of people’s lives. A secondary meaning of the word specter (which can also mean “ghost”) is “something widely feared as a dangerous occurrence.” All the other words have a kind of categorical relevance, but they don’t fit the sentence.

Glib.

The clue in this short sentence is the word eloquent, which you need to flip because of the “rather than.” Unscrupulous and inane are negative but don’t really relate to speech. Voluble doesn’t have any negative connotations. Glib, meaning “fluent and talkative, but insincere and shallow,” fits perfectly.