6. Some economists believe that the best way to get a _________ economy moving again is to cut taxes.
(A) sensational
(B) sarcastic
(C) shrewd
(D) sluggish

2. I just got an e-mail from a stranger asking me to supply details about my bank account. I can’t believe that some people are ______ enough to respond to that kind of request. (A) garrulous (B) grim (C) gullible (D) gallant

3. With her _______ star power, Beyoncé’s latest album ‘Cowboy Carter’ has captivated audiences with her intertextual visuals and fascinating music, sparking socio-political discourse on American symbolism, Blackness, justice, and reclamation. (A) infamous (B) ubiquitous (C) nebulous (D) calamitous

4. An individual afflicted with claustrophobia exhibits a pronounced _______ towards enclosed or confined spaces. (A) aversion (B) allergy (C) acclaim (D) annulment

5. Nepal has implemented a new rule for Himalayan hikers _______ Everest: they must now carry poop bags and take their excrement away with them to address the increasing waste issue on the world’s highest peak. (A) cratering (B) reclining (C) scaling (D) wavering

7. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced quietly to acknowledge the new military reality of the Biden Administration’s strategy to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the upcoming U.S. presidential elections in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of _______. (A) duplication (B) exoneration (C) attrition (D) hallucination

8. What’s unique in the frenzy of Taiwan’s ETFs is that over 60% of _______ are buying high-dividend ETFs, including the popular monthly dividend-paying Yuanta Taiwan Value High Dividend ETF (00940), turning it into a speculative target rather than a long-term investment vehicle. (A) revelers (B) excavators (C) laminators (D) arbitrageurs

9. ________ investing is an investment strategy actively seeking to create beneficial social or environmental outcomes while also generating financial gains, for example, in nonprofits that support the community or in clean-technology enterprises that benefit the environment. (A) Subtract (B) Impact (C) Extract (D) Retroact

10. Agnes Callamard, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in a drone strike by the US near Baghdad airport in Iraq in January, concluded in a report that the US attack violated international law, which exemplified that in an era of perpetual conflicts, a volatile president, as commander-in-chief, could grab expanded authority to flex his lethal powers _______. (A) ingeniously (B) gingerly (C) capriciously (D) pertinently

11. The landscape at Taroko Gorge was sculpted by the _______ forces of nature, which carved out valleys and shaped mountains. (A) premonition (B) primordial (C) proportional (D) prescriptive

12. Taiwan was struck by its strongest earthquake in 25 years, measuring 7.4 in magnitude, on 3 April 2024, causing dozens to become trapped along its prominent coastline with narrow, winding roads and tunnels carved out of the rock, known for stunning views but also being ________ not least because of the possibility of landslides. (A) frivolous (B) treacherous (C) unscrupulous (D) pertinacious