Correct Answer: C
Explanation: A sound that causes pain -- momentary but intense pain -- to some who hear it would be excruciating to them: the primary meaning of excruciating is "causing great pain or anguish."
question 11 of 12

Members of the research team were initially so adversarial that ---- seemed impossible; the project's inauspicious start made its final success all the more ---- .
(A) concentration . . incidental
(B) disagreement . . incongruous
(C) collaboration . . predictable
(D) hostility . . dazzling
(E) cooperation . . remarkable

(from the October 12, 1999 test)

Correct Answer: E
Explanation: The best answer is (E). The "adversarial" attitude of the team members would suggest that working together would be quite difficult or impossible. The first terms of answers (C), collaboration, and (E), cooperation, capture this meaning, and that of (A) makes some sense, too. Yet, only the second term of (E), remarkable, results in a sentence that makes sense in its totality: considering the initial, adversarial atmosphere, cooperation would seem impossible; given this bad start, the project's ultimate success appears remarkable, because nobody would have expected it.
question 12 of 12

Joshua's radical ideas were frowned on by most of his coworkers, who found them too ---- for their conservative tastes.
(A) heretical
(B) meticulous
(C) precise
(D) incoherent
(E) sagacious

(from the October 16, 1999 test)

Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Joshua's colleagues are described as having "conservative tastes," frowning on his "radical ideas." Such colleagues are likely to find Joshua's ideas too heretical, too divergent from conventional beliefs and standards. Choice (A), then, is the best answer.