gud ones from BB: few Why not's!!

[MS_2009]

Sb please resolve my following doubts..Ans options are in bold..Thanks!!

1. The theory of the ----- of industrial societies argues that ultimately all modern industrial systems will develop similar major institutional features.
(A) Continuity
(B) scope
(C) prevalence
(D) convergence
(E) Solidarity --> Solidarity = union of interests or purposes..seems most appropriate to me in the above context.

2. Parts of seventeenth-century Chinese pleasure gardens were not necessarily intended to look -they were designed expressly to evoke the agreeable melancholy resulting from a sense of the - of natural beauty and human glory.
1) great - immutability
2) joyful - mortality --> joyful fits in gud and for the second part my reasoning is as follows: Chinese pleasure gardens were designed to evoke melancholy, possibly by the evident loss of natural beauty over time, signifying mortality(what say?).Totally stumped..Although,it doesn't sound good enough, but why to omit this possibility when we can consider transitory as the correct ans?sb plz point out the fallacy..
3. conventional - wildness
4. cheerful - transitoriness
5. colorful - abstractness.

3) Ironically, the party leaders encountered no greater----their efforts to build a progressive party than the----of the progressives already elected to the legislature.
(A) support for.. advocacy
(B) threat to.. promise
(C) benefit from.. success why not??
(D) obstacle to.. resistance
(E) praise for.. reputation



4) To ensure the development and exploitation of a new technology,there must be a constant____ of several nevertheless distinct activities.
(A) INTERPLAY - plz point out the clues, Is it only because of the mention of "several nevertheless distinct"??

(B) IMPLEMENTATION
(C) COMPREHENDING
(D) IMPROVEMENT
(E) EXPLORATION



5) The _____ of the early Greek philosophers' attempts to explain the operations of the cosmos led certain later thinkers to inquire into the ______ of human reason.
(A)difficulty...origin
(B)meaning..supremacy
(C)complexity..reality
(D)equivocations..subtlety
(E)failures..efficacy

efficacy: Capacity or power to produce a desired effect..Considering that the Greek philosophers failed(E) in there attempts to explain led later thinkers to doubts/inquire the efficacy of human reason. What is wrong here???



6) It is puzzling to observe that Jones's novel has recently been criticized for its.....structure, since commentators have traditionally argued that its most obvious.....is its relentlessly rigid, indeed schematic, framework.

A) attention to...preoccupation
B) speculation about..characteristic
C) parody of... disparity
D) violation of.. contradiction
E) lack of.. flaw


-->Seems, I can be terrible at times in judging sentence structures- "its relentlessly rigid, indeed schematic, framework"> Is the tone +ve or -ve here??

relentlessly seems to me -ve whereas schematic framework is perhaps good??

how does flaw" fits in to the 2nd blank is what bothers me..

7) The breathing spells provided by the ___ arms shipments should give all the combatants a chance to reevaluate their positions.
(A) PLETHORA OF
(B)MORATORIUM ON
(C)

[Oink]

Well, in the 1st Q, solidarity would imply still existing. Converging fits as 'ultimately all modern industrial systems will develop ' is mentioned.
2) I have no clue as to why D should be chosen over B
3) The key word is ironically. Because of this, the progressives are an obstacle to a progressive party
4) Yes you got it right, as distinct is mentioned, something connecting these distinct activities should be in the blank
5) Even I arrived at E, though A just missed out. No idea why it should be anything else
6) There is no +ve sense in the 2nd blank. Relentless is -ve, rigid is even more -ve. So flaw fits perfectly.
7) This is incomplete, though Moratorium looks fine as it means legal delay in payment.
Regards

[MS_2009]

Nice attempt Oink
1.
3. Seems, my understanding of the sentence is different: Here is how I incorporated the idea of Irony:
Reasoning for option [C]: New party leaders encountered no greater benifits than the one's who were elected before ;although both worked towards the building of progressive party..There has to be something wrong in my reasoning or perhaps, "benifits from" and "sucess", do not fit in together..
Plz Comment !!
4.
6.Okay, please comment on my understanding:

Puzzling => contrast among 2 parts of the sentence.
As per (E), if the novel suffers from the lack of stucture, 2nd part is expected to refute the previous claim and so must show that it has a robust/ structure(which is evident from "indeed schematic, framework"), but since there is also a mention of "relentlessly rigid", this qualifies "flaw" to fit in the 2nd blank..
=>Had there been no mention of relentless, perhaps, "strength" or st alike would have been in the 2nd part of the ans choice. Plz comment!!

7. Can sb plz explain the implied meaning of this Sentence?