The main contention here is with second blank where attenuated and abridged both are fitting. Attenuated because it means to reduce something by force (here force being sudden illness) and abridge means to make a writing concise. Now, as the extempore was digressed because of host illness, so it didnt turn out to be concise rather reduced forcefully because of the illness. Therefore, attenuated is better choice here.

@expert - please help here.