We like to spend our Sunday afternoon in a/an ____ place, hiking over mountains and fording streams. 

sylvan

forest-like; rustic; wooded; woodsy

Mike is so ____ that he vacuums twice a day, organizes his pantry alphabetically, and measures out a spot on the coffee table for the remote. 

fastidious

fussy; finicky; choosy; picky 

We thought the play was going to be fresh and original, but it turned out to be a rather ____ performance. 

prosaic

matter-of-fact; dull; ordinary; commonplace

People want to believe that they have beauty and skill, so they might not recognize a/an ____ for what he is, an insincere flatterer. 

sycophant

a person who tries to gain favor by flattering persons of influence; a “yes man”

The man on trial for murder demonstrated his ____ intent when he snarled at the victim’s family. 

malevolent

spiteful; wicked; nasty; mean

Don’t get yourself in ____ situations, such as having to depend on someone who has been drinking to get you home. 

precarious

unsafe; insecure

I had ____ feelings about going to England; I wanted to go, but I was afraid of being so far from home. 

ambivalent

unsure; undecided; of two minds

____ people are often also speculative people, too deep in thought to be garrulous. 

taciturn

untalkative; uncommunicative

A ____ will talk about how much they’ve read and how much they know, but sometimes they don’t know when to come in out of the rain. 

pedant

a person who pays undue attention to book learning and formal rules
without having an understanding of practical affairs

You need to ____ in your quest for an education. 

persevere

persist in the face of obstacles; hang tough

Marissa prefers to write her own messages in greeting cards; she finds that the overly sentimental poems in store-bought cards are too ___ . 

maudlin

effusively sentimental 

We had to shorten the senator’s speech because it was far too ___. 

verbose

wordy

Although the boys were never explicitly warned not to go into the haunted house, they had a __ agreement to avoid it. 

tacit

unspoken yet understood; unstated

The existing ___ of rules and regulations need to be simplified into a few overarching guidelines. 

welter

bewildering jumble; turmoil

“Stop arguing with me,” groaned Samantha.  “As soon as I make any claim, you try to ___ it.” 

refute

disprove

Before the great dam was built, the waters of the Nile used to ___ the river valley every year. 

inundate

flood; overwhelm

Although Jack appreciated the raise, he knew that it was ___ since he missed work often and skipped out on staff meetings. 

unwarranted

undeserved; unjustified

Couch potatoes lead ___ lives, slouched in their recliners watching hour upon hour of TV.

 indolent

lazy

Even though the school did not ___ the use of cell phones in class, students could still hear them ringing. 

sanction

approve; ratify

Traffic was _______ when a pack of kangaroos that had escaped from the zoo thumped across the interstate. 

impeded

blocked; hindered