Official ExplanationThe blank in this sentence describes
“recent national political discourse,” which is referred to as
“hateful rhetoric” at the end of the sentence. While the other options in this question could possibly describe a person’s opinion on political discourse, the only words that could match
“hateful” are
“virulence” and
“acrimony,” both of which mean harsh or full of malice.
“Partisanship” and
“intransigence” form a pair, since each means biased or unlikely to compromise, but without anything in the sentence suggesting that people are not willing to compromise, the pair does not work here. Neither
“shortsightedness” nor
“miscalculation” mean
“hateful,” nor do these two words form a pair.
Answer: A,B