From Robert Louis Stevenson's essay *El Dorado* (1881). Select the word that fits the blank. "It seems as if a great deal were attainable in a world where there are so many marriages and decisive battles, and where we all, at certain hours of the day, and with great gusto and ______, stow a portion of victuals finally and irretrievably into the bag which contains us."
Areluctance
Bceremony
Cdespatch
Dapology
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. despatch
Stevenson's comic register: people eat with *great gusto and ______*. *Gusto* is vigorous enjoyment; the blank pairs with it as another adverbial mode. *Despatch* (also spelled *dispatch*) means *promptness, speed*. The image: people eat with relish *and* haste.
- "Reluctance" contradicts *gusto*.
- "Ceremony" slows the action.
- "Apology" makes no sense.
*Despatch* in this sense survives in modern English ("acted with dispatch" = quickly).
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