From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay *Self-Reliance* (1841). Select the word that fits the blank. "For though here and there a Lord Macaulay may escape from school honours with all his wits about him, most boys pay so dear for their medals that they never afterwards have a shot in their locker, and begin the world ______."

*(Note: this passage is from *An Apology for Idlers* by Stevenson, but the prose is in the same Victorian register and the GRE-style question form is identical. Read it as a generic essay.)* The metaphor is **financial**: schoolboys *pay so dear* for their medals, so by adulthood they *have no shot in their locker* (no resources left), and begin the world ______. "Bankrupt" — having exhausted one's resources — extends the financial figure exactly. - "Fortunate" reverses the figure. - "Distinguished" rewards the medal-winning, contradicting the speaker's verdict. - "Obedient" introduces a moral judgement absent from the financial metaphor. The figure works only if the boys *paid* something and got *nothing of value back* — financial ruin is the natural extension.