From William Hazlitt's essay *On the Ignorance of the Learned* (1821). Select the word that fits the blank. "The book-worm wraps himself up in his web of verbal ______, and sees only the glimmering shadows of things reflected from the minds of others."

Hazlitt is dismissing the book-worm's relation to language. The web image — a thin, abstracted enclosure — must be characterised by what it *lacks*: contact with concrete things. The second half of the sentence confirms: the book-worm sees only *glimmering shadows of things reflected from the minds of others*, not the things themselves. *Generalities* — broad, abstract terms that float free of particulars — is exactly what the web is made of. Verbal generalities are the *opposite* of direct perception of the world. - "Brilliance" and "precision" are praise words; Hazlitt is attacking, not praising. - "Originality" contradicts the *web of verbal X* image, which is meant to feel borrowed and second-hand. The contrast Hazlitt is building is **abstract verbiage vs concrete perception** — a recurring GRE Verbal axis.