From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay *Self-Reliance* (1841). Select the word that fits the blank. "A boy is in the parlor what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He ______ himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict."

Emerson is praising the boy's lack of attachment to *consequences* or *interests* — he passes judgment freely because he is not weighed down by what will follow. The blank must mean *trouble* or *burden oneself with*. "Cumber" (verb: to burden, hinder, encumber) supplies that meaning. *Cumbers himself never about consequences* = *never burdens himself with consequences*. Compare the related noun *encumbrance* and the adjective *cumbersome*. - "Counsels" (advises) misreads the rhetorical structure — the boy is **not** advising; he is *judging without weight*. - "Comforts" reverses the meaning — comfort *with* consequences would be the opposite of *unburdened by* them. - "Composes" is unrelated. The verb *cumber* is archaic in modern usage but exactly the GRE-canonical vocabulary the passage trains.