Explanation

Blank (i): empirical (B)

The sentence says the charts had:

"all decorative flourish and mythological speculation had been meticulously purged," leaving "only the stark empirical contours of coastlines" and achieving exceptional navigational precision.

This clearly emphasizes observation and measurement, which is exactly what empirical means.

A. conjectural = based on guesswork ----- opposite of the description.

B. empirical = based on observation and evidence.

C. vestigial = remaining as a trace from an earlier stage → doesn't fit.

Blank (ii): sanctioned (D)

The framework:

valued ("the union of precise measurement with direct observation") while dismissing theoretical conjecture.

Thus it approved of or endorsed that union.

D. sanctioned = approved, authorized, endorsed.

E. disparaged = criticized ---- opposite.

F. conflated = treated two things as the same ----- doesn't fit the sentence.

Blank (iii): defining hallmark (G)

The framework regarded measurement plus observation as the essential characteristic of genuine knowledge.

G. defining hallmark = distinguishing feature.

H. provisional outcomes = temporary results ---- doesn't fit.

I. discarded relics = abandoned remnants ---- completely incompatible.

Completed passage

When the geographer Elena Vasquez examined the portolan charts of the 14th-century Catalan cartographers, she found them to be remarkably empirical: from these maps, all decorative flourish and mythological speculation had been meticulously purged, leaving only the stark empirical contours of coastlines and the cold mathematical implications of an initial assumption about the Earth's curvature—an approach whose navigational precision would not be matched for another three centuries. Her assessment aligned with a broader epistemological framework that sanctioned the union of precise measurement with direct observation as the defining hallmark of genuine knowledge, while dismissing purely theoretical conjecture as no better than idle fancy.

Answer: B,D,G