OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


A, D

You can use the word "but" in the sentence to deduce that the environment in the 1950s was not the same as it is now. In other words, the second half of the sentence tells us that "societal changes" have led to the reality of a black president, implying that Americans in the 1950s would not have expected such an occurrence. Choice (E) perfidious, "faithless," "disloyal," "untrustworthy," and (F) fastidious, "careful with details," can both be ruled out. These are words more likely to be used to describe people than events and ideas and would thus not make sense in this context. While (B) puerile, which means "childish, immature, or silly," could be used to describe an occurrence or event, it wouldn't make sense to describe an election of a president. Choice (C) superannuated describes something that is out-of-date or obsolete, which would be in conflict with the idea of social progress. That leaves choice (A) farcical, "absurd" or "ludicrous," and (D) implausible, "improbable" or "inconceivable." Both these words render a sentence that means about the same thing. At the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, people would have found the idea of a black president far-fetched, rendering it both absurd and inconceivable during that era.