Question: if you spend all your times on____, you won’t have any left for really important matters.

Answer: minutiae

Question: Suddenly I was overcome by such a feeling of _____ peace that I began to wonder whether I was still on earth.

Answer: beatific

Question: before you dismiss him as just another impractical____, think of how many great inventors were once regarded as mere “cranks.”

Answer: visionary

Question: Though her body had become bent and____with age, her mind was as alert and active as ever.

Answer: wizened

Question: some Civil War generals weren’t professional soldiers and got their jobs through pulling strings and other forms of political____.

Answer: chicanery

Question: Some people enjoy the type of atonal music written by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg; others find it ___.

Answer: cacophonous

Question: only a fool would have succumbed to the cloying____of that smooth-talking rascal!

Answer: blandishments

Question: However much I may dispute your views, I will never _____ your right to hold them.

Answer: gainsay

Question: When it became clear how shamelessly he had treated his brother, he became a virtual ___ in his own family.

Answer: pariah

Question: on the first play, our diminutive quarterback was “sacked” by a veritable____of a linebacker, ominously nicknamed “Bone Crusher.”

Answer: behemoth