填空是之填空真题+答案解析，一起来了解一下。
1. According to the newspaper critic, the performances at the talent contest last night ___ from acceptable to excellent.
(A) varied
(B) receded
(C) swept
(D) averaged
(E) declined
2. If those large publishers that respond solely to popular literary trends continue to dominate the publishing market, the initial publication of new writers will depend on the writers’ willingness to ___ popular tastes.
(A) struggle against
(B) cater to
(C) admire
(D) flout
(E) elude
3. Their ___ of loyalties is first to oneself, next to kin, then to fellow tribe members, and finally to compatriots.
(A) merging
(B) hierarchy
(C) definition
(D) judgment
(E) cognizance
4. Although the meanings of words may necessarily be liable to change, it does not follow that the lexicographer is therefore unable to render spelling, in a great measure, ___.
(A) arbitrary
(B) superfluous
(C) interesting
(D) flexible
(E) constant
5. While not completely nonplussed by the unusually caustic responses from members of the audience, the speaker was nonetheless visibly ___ by their lively criticism.
(A) humiliated
(B) discomfited
(C) deluded
(D) disgraced
(E) embarrassed
(F) tantalized
6. Though one cannot say that Michelangelo was impractical designer, he was, of all nonprofessional architects known, the most ___ in that he was the least constrained by tradition or precedent.
(A) pragmatic
(B) adventurous
(C) innovative
(D) empirical
(E) skilled
(F) learned