The music of jazz pianist Marcus Roberts derives its unique energy from the tension among his _______ influences: classical ragtime, with its strict syncopated rhythms; modern funk, with its heavy bass lines; and the blues, a genre that emphasizes emotional expression over technical precision.

New research by marine biologists Sarah Jenkins and Kenji Sato is inspired by their observation that while there are countless studies on marine life in shallow coastal waters, there is a _______ studies concerning the biological processes of organisms living in the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench.

Microbiologists like Dr. Aris Thorne spend much of their time _______ what is invisible to the naked eye: using high-powered electron microscopes, they closely analyze the structural integrity of bacterial cell walls.

Archaeologist Elena Vance examined pottery shards found in a Neolithic settlement in modern-day Turkey. She found that the clay composition and firing techniques were _______ the pottery produced by neighboring civilizations of the same era, suggesting that there was significant trade and cultural exchange between the groups.

In the fictional universe created by author L.K. Harris, possessing magical abilities is not _______: nearly every citizen in the capital city creates small illusions or levitates objects as part of their daily routine.

For his 2023 digital art installation, designer Marco Rossi _______ a series of landscapes using topographic data from the Andes Mountains. He took the raw elevation numbers and processed them through a 3D modeling algorithm, resulting in what he called "virtual peaks."

Based on complex economic models, analysts in 2005 projected that a specific combination of housing market inflation and deregulated lending would lead to a global financial crisis. This _______ was unfortunately confirmed by the market collapse of 2008.

The following text is adapted from a 1920 travelogue by explorer Arthur H. Clark. He describes looking through a piece of glass.

The window pane was so pristine that it was almost invisible, and when we looked through it at the garden, the flowers seemed to be floating directly before our eyes, undistorted by any barrier.

As used in the text, what does the word "pristine" most nearly mean?

In the early 20th century, residents of the rural town of Oakhaven faced a severe lack of access to fresh produce. To _______ this situation, the community council established a cooperative farm and weekly market in 1910, which provided healthy food options to families for decades.

Laboratory tests measuring the durability of a new synthetic rubber sometimes fail to _______ the results seen when the tires are used on real roads. While there are several reasons for this, one is that lab tests cannot perfectly simulate the chaotic variables of weather and road debris.