Explanation

An overview of the passage suggests that the first sentence is relatively self-contained and that the blank is answerable without the succeeding sentences, where the topic shifts slightly. The colon after the first blank signals that what follows will define the word in the blank and will explain what danger Mill was concerned about. It says that without challenge, one’s opinions grow “weak and flabby” and therefore one becomes complacent, not tendentious or fractious. A quick reading of the next two sentences suggests that the topic will be another danger that Mill described, “the danger of partiality and incompleteness.” Free and open discussion needs to take place because each person’s opinion tends to “embrace only a portion of the truth” and others’ views are partially right, or never completely “erroneous.” The other choices for the second and third blanks deal with change, immediacy, or antithesis, none of which relate to the
second danger of “partiality” or “incompleteness.”
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What readers most commonly remember about John Stuart Mill’s classic exploration of the liberty of thought and discussion concerns the danger of (i)__________: in the absence of challenge, one’s opinions, even when they are correct, grow weak and flabby. Yet Mill had another reason for encouraging the liberty of thought and discussion: the danger of partiality and incompleteness. Since one’s opinions, even under the best circumstances, tend to (ii)__________, and because opinions opposed to one’s own rarely turn out to be completely (iii)__________, it is crucial to supplement one’s opinions with alternative points of view.

The First Blank

Right after the first blank we have the colon, and we know what comes after the colon explains what comes before it. We have the following sentence fragment after the colon:

in the absence of challenge, one’s opinions, even when they are correct, grow weak and flabby.

Since in the absence of challenges, one becomes complacent resulting in our opinions (apart from other things) becoming weak and flabby, complacency is the correct choice for the first blank. The answer is Choice B.

One cannot say that absence of challenges makes one tendentious, that is expressing or intending to promote a particular and especially a controversial point of view. In fact, it is in one sense, the very opposite of complacency.

And absence of challenges will not encourage fractiousness, which is the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline. Again, this is the opposite of complacency.

Hence we reject Choice A and Choice C.

The Second blank

Yet Mill had another reason for encouraging the liberty of thought and discussion: the danger of partiality and incompleteness.

Here the author talks about the danger of partiality and incompleteness. Therefore, the best way to complete the sentence fragment that follows is:

Since one’s opinions, even under the best circumstances, tend to (ii)embrace only a portion of the truth

The correct choice is embrace only a portion of the truth. The answer is Choice D.

The choices change over time and focus on matters close at hand are not implied by the clues in the sentence. So we reject Choice E and Choice F.


The Third Blank

and because opinions opposed to one’s own rarely turn out to be completely (iii)__________, it is crucial to supplement one’s opinions with alternative points of view.

Now if one's opinions, even in the best of circumstances, tend to embrace only a portion of the truth, then we need to complete them by supplementing them with alternative points of view. And we can do these because these alternative points of view, in this case opinions opposed to one's own, rarely turn out to be completely (iii)erroneous. If they were completely erroneous we cannot use them to supplement our views.

Also, opinions that are not completely antithetical (opposed to our views) or those that are not completely immutable, can still turn out to be completely erroneous. So we reject choice H and Choice I.

Thus, the correct choice is erroneous. The answer is Choice G.
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Why is "antithetical" ruled out in the last blank? It means opposite and opinions opposed to one's own rarely turn out to be completely opposite, sharing some similarities that help in encompassing the entire truth, because one's opinion at a time can only "partially cover the truth".

Can someone explain?

What readers most commonly remember about John Stuart Mill’s classic exploration of the liberty of thought and discussion concerns the danger of (i)__________: in the absence of challenge, one’s opinions, even when they are correct, grow weak and flabby. Yet Mill had another reason for encouraging the liberty of thought and discussion: the danger of partiality and incompleteness. Since one’s opinions, even under the best circumstances, tend to (ii)__________, and because opinions opposed to one’s own rarely turn out to be completely (iii)__________, it is crucial to supplement one’s opinions with alternative points of view.




Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
A. tendentiousness D. embrace only a portion of the truth G. erroneous
B. complacency E. change over time H. antithetical
C. fractiousness F. focus on matters close at hand I. immutable


So, key words here:
i) the danger of () in the absence of challenge. What do we get without challenge? Not tendentiousness (testiness), or fractiousness (likely to become a fight). Complacency.
ii) additional reason: danger of partiality and incompleteness. One's opinions tend to embrace only "a portion of the truth".
iii) it's crucial to supplement one's opinions with alternative points of view. Why? Because opinions opposed to one's own rarely turn out to be completely "erroneous".
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Because antithetical to a view means completely going totally against it.

For instance, if one doesn't believe in climate change, then their views are totally against someone who is a climate activist. It is sort of like black and white case. Either you are for it or against it. There is no partial or incompleteness.

Erroneous things can be partially correct. For example, ignoring some key elements of facts and jumping on conclusion would be considered "erroneous", but not antithetical.

Hope it makes more sense.
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Its a support of the second blank. When one considers only a partial view of something and base their opinion/views on that then they're highly unlikely to consider it error prone. Hence, erroneous fits here. Antithetical just means incompatible or opposed to, which doesn't go with the sentence.

Hmm, I was going back and forth between D and F. I was going to choose D but the "truth" in the A/C was unsupported by the passage, there was no mention of "truth" only "liberty of thought and discussion". Also F, by focusing on what's closest to us, aren't we partial / incomplete? How to arrive at D with this chain of thought?

So, basically you do not know how to deal with between D and F ?
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Two reasons to choose D:

1) Since, Mill mentions partiality and incompleteness - it leads us to believe that the opinions are not complete or have only a portion of truth.
2) Since, supplementing one’s opinions with alternative points of view is crucial - it again emphasizes that the original opinion is not complete

antithetical thoughts actually can have some rights that can be implemented into theory
like einstein entanglement in quantum theory
and there are several example in science history
so why not antithetical work

Because is out of scope

An opinion is completely wrong or right. However, an opinion must be challenge.

And if it must challenge their reason why is because always an opinion, a story or else shows always part of the whole story.

However, it is not completely wrong and NOt completely correct'

The opinion is NOt antithetical....it could be wrong or right so we must have another point of view.

it is a very challenging question

Let me know if it is clear otherwise I will explain from scratch
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thanks it is not necessary

and because opinions opposed to one’s own rarely turn out to be completely (iii)__________, it is crucial to supplement one’s opinions with alternative points of view.



We supplement our views (which only embrace a portion of the truth) with thoughts that are not completely erroneous, not with thoughts that are not completely antithetical. Because thoughts that are not completely antithetical can also be completely erroneous.

More accurately:

We supplement our views (which only embrace a portion of the truth) with thoughts that are rarely completely erroneous, not with thoughts that are rarely completely antithetical. Because thoughts that are rarely completely antithetical can also be completely erroneous.
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