Question

Museum director Hoving (i)________ refers to the smuggled Greek urn as the “hot pot,” not because there are doubts about its authenticity or even great reservations as to its price, but because the (ii)________ of its acquisition is open to question.


Explanation


Let us attack the second blank first.

We know that the Greek Urn was called as the "hot pot" . And the reason for this had nothing to do with the price ("great reservations about its price"). Therefore, we can rule out expense as a choice. Since there is no doubt about its authenticity (ancientness), it cannot be timeless - of course it does not even make grammatical or semantic sense to talk about "the timeless of its acquisition". The manner of its acquisition makes perfect logical sense. Since the Greek Urn was called a "hot spot" because of the manner of its acquisition, it cannot be characteristically, because there is nothing in the sentence to tell us the urn itself was hot. Neither is it clear why the manner of its acquisition should induce one to "repeatedly" refer to it as a "hot pot". But yes, one can colloquially refer to it as a "hot pot" if the manner of acquisition is open to question (and thus, it is the centre of all kinds of speculation, generating heated discussion).

First hit the 2nd blank: Because there are not doubts about the authenticity and great reservations as to its price, option "expense" is out. Moreover, "timeless" is out of context. Hence "manner" wins.

Now the 1st blank: Use POE. There are no characteristics shown of Urn. Hence that option is out. Repeatedly is out of context. "colloquially" wins.

Hi there!!

Took me around 50 seconds to attempt this question!

Firstly read the whole sentence, and try to understand jist of the sentence.

As a whole while reading for the first time I know the director is referring to something which does not have a definite characteristic thus, repeatedly and characteristic are out and colloquially is the only option. Even though I did not know what it means negating the other option choices was sufficient.

For the second blank, as its characteristic are still in question, manner fits the bill. Timeless and expense are out of scope.

Do let me know if the reasoning for the above explanation is wrong🙂

Hope this helps!

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