Explanation

This question is an excellent lesson in the principle, “Don’t add anything to your reading of the sentence that wasn’t there already.” What were you told? Just that the first short story collection had many diverse voices, and the second collection has “a ________ narrator” — in other words, just one speaker.
Therefore, you don’t know that the stories or narrator are insightful, facetious, lonely, or disingenuous.

Motley, even, sole.
_________________

How is motley different from variegated though? Don't both mean a lot of variety?

Yes but motley in the sense of incongruously, disparate.

A is more suitable here in the context.

Regards

kudos

plz help for second blank, can't find clue for 2nd bank..

While the author’s first collection of short stories presented a (i) _________ hodgepodge of voices, the second collection presents a remarkably (ii) _________ set of tales presented by a (iii) _________ narrator.

hodgepodge= incongruous mixture. Therefore A= motley

remarkably set of tales = must be in contrast to motley B = even

Hope this helps

This question is an excellent lesson in the principle: don’t add anything to your reading of the sentence that wasn’t there already. The sentence indicates that the first short story collection had many diverse voices and the second collection has “a ________ narrator”—in other words, just one speaker. The word “sole” fits the third blank; neither “lonely” nor “disingenuous” convey the idea of a single narrator. The first story collection was a “hodgepodge” (jumble), but the second was not a jumble; it was an “even” set of stories. “Insightful” and “facetious” (not serious) are not antonyms for a jumble. For the first blank, “motley” works because it means composed of diverse and often incongruous elements. “Variable” is a trap: a variable hodgepodge of voices would imply that the voices in the first collection can change over time, not that the voices were varied or diverse. And “homogenous” would indicate that the voices were all similar; this describes the second collection, not the first.