The leaders of Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” were a study in contrasts. At the center of the political storm stood Viktor Yushchenko, his once (i)____________ face transformed into a monstrous mask by dioxin poisoning; but, at his side, no one could miss the (ii)____________Yulia Tymoshenko, soon to become the world’s only prime minister to adorn the covers of fashion magazines.

Blank (i)	Blank (ii)
(A) quiescent	(D) prepossessing
(B) fatuous	(E) decorous
(C) comely	(F) felicitous

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Question

The leaders of Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” were a study in contrasts. At the center of the political storm stood Viktor Yushchenko, his once (i)____________ face transformed into a monstrous mask by dioxin poisoning; but, at his side, no one could miss the (ii)____________Yulia Tymoshenko, soon to become the world’s only prime minister to adorn the covers of fashion magazines.


Explanation

We are told that Victor Yushchenko's face was transformed into a monstrous mask by dioxin poisoning. The phrase "his once (i)________ face" indicates a contrast between his present face and the earlier one. So if the present one was monstrous, his earlier would have been "pleasant to look at". The word quiescent means inactive or dormant - it is definitely not the word we are looking for. The word fatuous means something stupid, pointless or silly, as in fatuous remark. It is not a good descriptor of faces and neither does it convey the sense of "pleasant to look at". The word comely means just that, and is a synonym of beautiful and pretty, and so fits the bill.



Now moving to the second blank, which describes the person at his side. The preposition "but" indicates a contrast. Also, the very first sentence of the passage tells us that the two persons "were a study in contrasts". Plus we know that she is the world's only prime minister to adorn the covers of fashion magazines. So the word we are looking for should suggest "beautiful appearance" , especially since it is in contrast to "monstrous" appearance. The correct answer choice is prepossessing.

Decorous means in keeping with good taste and propriety and felicitous means well-suited to the circumstance. Both words do not convey the meaning of prepossessing, and hence we reject them.