1. It is not mere fiction that a dolphin can carry on two conversations simultaneously, one by whistling and the other by making clicking sounds; in fact, the phenomenon is not even _______.   uncommon   pragmatic   explicable   substantiated   true   Hint Hint       2. People have limited patience when browsing the internet; as a result, the individual's interest _______ if the web page does not appear on the screen within a few seconds.   infiltrates   incubates   entails   flags   flays   Hint       3. Although David was severely critical of his wife, he did not dare treat her with _______.   mendacity   sarcasm   insularity   contempt   superciliousness   Hint       4. The biologist described how vultures _______ portions of carcasses and play a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance as _______.   devour..scavengers   seize..predators   gobble..xenophobes   depend on..parasites   hunt..carnivores   Hint       5. It was _______ on the part of the senate that obstructed the adoption of a revolutionary teaching methodology in the executive MBA program.   effrontery   conservatism   anachronism   magnanimity   propriety   Hint       6. The probability that an equipment will _______ flawlessly is decreased if a critical function is performed by a single component; therefore, engineers build a certain amount of _______ in their designs to guarantee against failures.   operate..redundancy   synthesize..optimality   saturate..abnormality   deteriorate..viability   integrate..feasibility   Hint       7. The religious head had no option but to ostracize the _______ immediately after he married a woman of another sect and decided to embrace her faith.   proselyte   paragon   recluse   malingerer   pedant   Hint