Doubt I TC I Big Book Test 15

Hi! Doubt in this TC question:

  • I wanted to confirm, that Greg is using the “extreme word” strategy here right? I had earlier predicted a negative word in the blank, something like “not important” given the logic of the sentence.
  • Also, why is reaffirmation wrong here? Just trying to understand why we eliminated it (right now, not factoring in whether its pair fits or not); reaffirming the validity of old contributions is a positive thing, and therefore I had not eliminated it.

In such cases, how can I choose between a negative word vs. an extreme word, if logic for both seems fitting- as it does atleast in my understanding in this case

Hey, reaffirm is wrong as it means to confirm something, so when we put it back into the sentence, it doesn’t make sense, i.e current confirmations (in direct violation of the 1776)

Hi!
Still a bit confused.

See how the definition says, confirming something “previously established”:

Does putting reaffirm in the sentence make it that we are confirming Smith’s earlier contributions as valid today?