1. Though the subject of the museum exhibit had been an astute politician and strategist in his day, not even his most vociferous apologists could drum up interest among a modern public for a retrospective of a career so marked by _________ views on social issues.
2. Just months from retirement, the disgraced executive was forced to make _________ exit from the company.
3. _________ in scandal, the company could regain favor with customers only through mass firings of guilty executives.
4. From the battle’s opening volleys to its bloody conclusion, the forces of destruction razed a path through the city, ultimately leaving behind an eerie stillness where there once had been streets and squares _________ with life.
5. By framing the new law as a question of urgent safety rather than of privacy, the government obviated the need to pass through the standard channels of legislation, effectively _________ all formal dissent and relegating any would-be naysayer from a position of engaged activist to that of powerless bystander.
6. Exactly which bird species fell victim first to the deadly virus is the subject of ongoing controversy; what is known, however, is that it took but a slight mutation in the pathogen’s genetic constitution to render it lethal to _________ of related species.
7. The coastline of the region plays home predominantly to a community of cosseted elites; aside from the tolerated presence of a smattering of _________ abodes, the area is practically inundated with opulent estates, which boast a variety of architectural styles from the neo-classical to the Gilded Age.
8. An antiquated rifle and a revolutionary spirit were the only things in the possession of the young _________ as he forded the perilous canyon stream and wended his way up the opposite bank in hopes of joining forces with the insurgent militia.
9. After many hours of debate, things seemed to have reached _________, as neither side was willing to give so much as an inch, and no one had anything new to offer.
10. While kidney stones are known to produce a truly _________ sensation, often compared to the agony of childbirth, they are almost never fatal.