In this task, you will be given a passage to read. A fill in the blank question will be given to you.  Your answer should fit the blank appropriately.

[EX Q]:  The realist style of The Feast of the Goat is recognized by some reviewers as being a break from a more allegorical approach to the dictator novel . The novel received largely positive reviews , most of which were willing to accept sacrifices of historical accuracy in favour of good storytelling . A common comment on the novel is the graphic nature of the many acts of torture and murder which are depicted in the novel . Vargas lets the reader see the realities of an oppressive regime with a degree of detail not often used by his compatriots in Latin American literature , as Michael Wood suggests in the London Review of Books : Vargas Llosa ... tells us far more about the details of day @-@ to @-@ day intrigue , and the sordid , sadistic minutiae of torture and murder .  Walter Kirn of the New York Times suggests that the  grisly scenes of dungeon interrogations and torture sessions  cast other aspects of the novel in a pale light , draining them of their significance and impact . Similarly , Kirn implies that the narrative machinery  mentioned by Wood as being somewhat unwieldy also produces a largely superfluous storyline . The plot line centered on Urania Cabral is described by Sturrock as being an emotional centre that focuses the novel , and Wood agrees that her confrontations with past demons hold the readers attention . In contrast , Kirn 's review states that Urania 's segments are talky and atmospheric ... [ and ] seem to be on loan from another sort of book .  fill in the blank  :  The realist style of The Feast of the Goat is recognized by some reviewers as being a break from a more allegorical approach to the dictator __________________ . 
[EX A]:  novel 

[EX Q]:  Egyptian gods were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples were traditionally believed to be outside the divine order . But in the New Kingdom , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun god 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and gods . Other gods were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet , who presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to gods influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's  heart  — the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well @-@ being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the gods judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . But in general , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the gods laid out . Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the god 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the gods could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . Egyptian texts take different views on whether the gods are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the gods were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other gods . But some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in the gods ' defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which the creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the gods as strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the gods ' power to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific gods who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the gods ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the gods ' will . fill in the blank  :Egyptian gods were involved in __________________ lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . 
[EX A]:  human 

[EX Q]:  The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c . 3100 – 2686 BC ) . Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period ( before 3100 BC ) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures . Some of these images , such as stars and cattle , are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times , but in most cases there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities . As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated , clearer signs of religious activity appeared . The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of the predynastic era , along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities : the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods , the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic Set animal that represents Set . Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the gods developed in these early times . Gustave Jéquier , for instance , thought the Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form , and finally deities in human form , whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the gods must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning . Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic , and more current ones , such as Siegfried Morenz ' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from and personify their environment , are difficult to prove . Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small , independent villages . Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions , many scholars have suggested that the pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states , spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities . But others have argued that the most important predynastic gods were , like other elements of Egyptian culture , present all across the country despite the political divisions within it . The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt , in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of the entire country . These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the exclusive right to interact with the gods , and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion . New gods continued to emerge after this transformation . Some important deities like Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c . 2686 – 2181 BC ) . Places and concepts could suddenly inspire the creation of a deity to represent them , and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite @-@ sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses . Kings were said to be divine , although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths . Some non @-@ royal humans were said to have the favor of the gods and were venerated accordingly . This veneration was usually short @-@ lived , but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes , as were some other officials . Through contact with neighboring civilizations , the Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . Dedun , who is first mentioned in the Old Kingdom , may have come from Nubia , and Baal , Anat , and Astarte , among others , were adopted from Canaanite religion during the New Kingdom ( c . 1550 – 1070 BC ) . In Greek and Roman times , from 332 BC to the early centuries AD , deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt , but the native gods remained , and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship . fill in the blank  :  The first written __________________ of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c . 
[EX A]:
 evidence