1. Literary criticism has in recent years become increasingly ____ ; it is almost impossible for the non-literary person to understand its analyses.
A. abstruse
B. accessible
C. colloquial
D. wide-ranging
E. professional
2. The alchemists, though they are often supposed to have been ____ or confidence tricksters, were actually skilful technologists.
A. empiricists
B. polemicists
C. pragmatists
D. theorists
E. charlatans
3. Bullock carts and hand pumps seem ____ in a village whose skyline is dominated by telephone cables and satellite dishes.
A. anachronisms
B. exigencies
C. diversions
D. provocations
E. portents