The sentence has two contrasting ideas as evidenced by “Although”. The second part says the acquisitions “were believed enough” hence the contrast for this should mean the acquisitions seemed true but actually were false. Specious and spurious means anything that seems superficially correct but is actually false.
Answer: B,E

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OE


The sentence says that the accusations against the politician… were believed by enough voters to seriously damage his bid for office. The although transition lets you know that the blank should contrast with the clue, so the accusations should not have been believed. Write down something like “false” for the blank. Specious and spurious both mean false, so (B) and (E) are correct. Watch out for trap answers such as credible (believable), which has the correct context, but the opposite of the correct meaning for the blank.
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