Question: No matter where candidates for high political office go these days, the _____ eye of the TV camera seems focused on them.

Answer: omnipresent

Question: As his irrepressible flow of reminiscences continured without a letup, I tried in vain to _____ a few observations of my own.

Answer: interpolate

Question: To say that he is _____ does not even begin to convey just how alienated he is from any regard for the truth.

Answer: mendacious

Question: One wall of the museum was filled with charms and _____ designed to ward off everything from a hangnail to the evil eye.

Answer: fetishes

Question: They claim to have made a thorough search of the premises, but I suspect that their efforts were no more than ______.

Answer: perfunctory

Question: Last night, Central High’s Netnicks captured the basketball championship by _____ the South High Slammers, 61 to 44.

Answer: discomfiting

Question: I thought our state legislators would consider the proposal at the earliest opportunity, but they let it _____ in committee for months.

Answer: languish

Question: Responding to the melancholy note in the song of the nightingale, Keats wrote of its “_____ anthem.”

Answer: plaintive

Question: Suddenly I was surrounded by a mob of street urchins loudly _____ me for a handout.

Answer: importuning

Question: I was greatly relieved to learn that the accident I had with my car last week didn’t do any _____ damage to the motor.

Answer: irreparable