When the sentence is long, 3 blanks, and it is complex ALWAYS break down it apart to understand its intimacy

From the early 1880s onward,

From the 1880 ahead something happened....so far so good


author Oscar Wilde found it hard to escape the (i) ________ belief that he happily

Wilde had hard time to escape from somewhere. Here because we do have belief after the blank we infer fairly easily that he had hard time to change mind or idea from what he believed was right. This is is probably the most intended meaning of this portion of the sentence

Beleif is also equal to view or as I said = to idea or something like that.

therefore the only blank possible as pick is A. He had hard time to change his longer held idea on something



(ii) _________ other people's ideas.

The second blank is a bit obscure. Leave it for now


By far the most controversial conflict in WilcKs career arose from criticisms that the painter JaMes McNeill Whistler made about Wilde's unacknowledged (iii) _________ of his witticisms.

We have a story about Wilcks who during his career sustained that the paiter James made about Wilde NOT recognizing that Wilde made a joke, and Wilks sustained that Wilde stole jokes. Therefore, appropriation or unacknowledged taking is the correct blank

Back to the second one: the only logical word is in line with the meaning of the entire sentence I.E. someone said about Wilde that he stolen ideas or in the case of the sentence: jokes. Therefore the only word is filched or illegally take possession of something.

I hope now is more clear

PS: weird sentence though

This is an absolutely terrible question. I think there should also be a qualitative rating of questions that are more GRE like and less absurd.