TC question from a book

[easybreeze17]

Dear expert,

I don't know the answer so please provide below.

20C America witnessed a nearly I)_____ ascent to even greater wealth, leaving its leaders ________ of publicly acknowledging budgetary limitations.

blank I) blank ii)
portentous chary
pertinacious opprobrious
unremitting implicate

I think the first blank is "portentous" as the other two has a similar meaning. however, what about blank ii)?

thanks in advance.

[tommywallach]

Hey There,

It would be "unremitting" and "chary."

You can't have a "nearly portentous" ascent to wealth. "Portentous" means that it's a sign of other big things to come (illogical here, because the ascent itself is a big thing) or that it's pretentious (also illogical here). Pertinacious means "tenacious," which can't describe an ascent.

This logically leads to "chary," which means "wary" or "reluctant." If the economy kept growing and growing ("unremittingly" = without stopping), government officials would be reluctant to admit there could be any budget problems.

Make sense?

-t