text completion

[123aster]

Post subject: Re: can anyone help me with this
Post Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 3:37 am
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Posts: 1
can some one please help me with this text completion i dint get this:
1.Short of being a member of the royal family, it was impossible to be higher born than young Tycho. His ancestors and relatives had for generations been ___________________ who served the Danish kings with __________________, who knew how to maintain a position of ___________________ amid shifting factions at court and how to regain that position if it happened through some stroke of misfortune to be temporarily lost.

Blank 01 Blank 02
cruel followers consummate skill and loyalty
powerful leaders pride and arrogance
fanatic challengers humbleness and brutality

Blank 03
inferiority
crookedness
influence
ans :1. powerful leaders , consummate skill and loyalty, influence
how can the answer to the first blank be powerful leader?????????

[tommywallach]

Hey 123aster,

Do you understand the phrase "Short of being a member of the royal family..."?

"Short of..." implies that you are as close to it as possible.

"Short of being a rock star, Steve had everything a musician could want."

We are also told that "it was impossible to be higher born than young Tycho." That means his parents must have been very high-born themselves--hence powerful leaders!

-t