The general sense of the first sentence is that Thomas made commonplace remarks or statements. A number of the answers fit in this regard (particularly “statements” and “remarks.”) The second part requires slightly more attention. The fact that people had to take time to find the “hidden implications” of his words implies that they contained many points but in a way that was sometimes hidden. "Subtle" thought makes very careful and small distinctions, often to the point of being missed by an untrained mind. This is the best option, far better than “intellectual,” which does not at all express this kind of subtlety. Likewise, “subtle” contrasts well with “commonplace statements,” which at least imply a lack of subtlety.

The most direct clue for this question is “providing indirect confirmation.” The “circumstances” are literally the things "standing around the edges” of something. (In parallel, think of the “circumference” of a circle: it “goes around” its outside.) Circumstantial evidence does not necessarily prove a case, it merely gives evidence that is at best indirect. For instance, a person might have been killed in on a given street, and a potential culprit might regularly walk down that street. However, if that is all that can be gathered, it is at best circumstantial. “Collect” clearly works well.

When faced with a two-word sentence completion question, you often have to examine how the two words fit together, as well as how they fit into the sentence. “Mettle” is a person’s ability to cope, or in other words, their spirit and fortitude; “stoic” means able to endure pain or hardship without complaint. It makes sense that someone’s ability to cope would be tested on the battlefield; likewise, it stands to reason that someone who is “stoic” would have to worry less about how he or she would endure the test of fighting on a battlefield. As for the other answer choices, “debauchery” means immorality or depravity; “heinous” means wicked, evil, and monstrous; “adoration” means love and respect; “jovial” means cheerful; “restraint” means self-control; “sweltering” means very hot; “moderation” means restraint, self-control, or discipline; and “tepid” means lukewarm, or unenthusiastic.

Because this man's perceptive boss is unable to recognize what he is doing, we expect that his behavior is clever and skillfully deceptive. For the first blank, "cunning," "ingenious" (creative and inventive), and "meticulous" (painstakingly careful) would all be consonant with that idea. Of the words corresponding to these three words, only "subterfuge" (dishonest trickery to attain a goal) would work to designate the behavior that these words would describe.

Something that is “higher level” in a given structure could be called the “macrostructure.” The prefix “macro” means larger or longer and is used in words like “macroeconomics” and “macrophage.” If explanations of such structures “must” include that of the simpler ones, the former are directly bound to the latter. If two things are “inextricable,” they cannot be separated from each other. To extricate something is to remove it from things constraining and bound to it.

That a school subject is popular even though it has another characteristic tells us that characteristic should be negative. "Burdensome" and "strenuous" would both work. This makes the options for the second blank "intricacies" and "prowess." "Intricacies" makes more sense in the context of this sentence, because it indicates complexity, where "prowess" indicates skill.

Since Katherine’s work is called impressive, it is likely the case that one could say that she was very careful regarding every detail of the work; therefore, the best option would be to say that she was “assiduous,” meaning that she cared about every detail of the project. Because of this, the option “aspect” fits well with the blank found in the main clause, for such “assiduous care” would imply that no single aspect of the overall project would show any shortfall in quality.

For the first blank, we can infer that whatever is scattered across the lawn "spilled from the back of an overly-full garbage truck" and is "disgusting." Knowing that, we can infer that we need to pick out an answer choice that means "trash" or "waste," so either "debris" ("dirt or refuse") or "refuse" ("matter thrown away or rejected as worthless; trash") could be correct. For the second blank, we know that the cottage has "attractive old brick walls, [a] garden of roses, and smoke coming out of its chimney," so we can infer that either "quaint" ("attractively unusual or old-fashioned") or "charming" ("pleasant or attractive") could potentially be correct. Of the words that we've identified as potentially correct for each blank, only "refuse" and "quaint" appear in the same answer choice, so the correct answer is "refuse . . . quaint."

We know that the food ran out very quickly at the party, so there mustn't have been very much of it. Knowing this, we should pick an adjective for the first blank that is a synonym of little. Both "meager" and "minuscule" could work, leaving us to decide between "dearth" and "malady" for the second blank. For the second blank, we're looking for a noun that conveys the lack of available snacks after the food ran out. Since "dearth" means lack or shortage and "malady" means disease or ailment, "dearth" is the better choice, and the answer is "meager . . . dearth."

For the first blank, we can tell that we need a noun that means something like "poison," because we know that it "poisoned the laboratory's water system." Either "contaminant" or "pollutant" could work. For the second blank, we need a word that describes the water system's initial state, so we need an adjective that means something like clean. Either "unadulterated" (pure) or "unsullied (not dirtied) could be correct. Of the answer choices we have identified as potentially correct, only "contaminant" and "unadulterated" appear in a single answer choice, so "contaminant . . . unadulterated" is the correct answer.