Johnson has _________, that’s for sure; his style and confidence are unparalleled.
self-assurance
idealism
decorum
prudence
propriety
panache
The correct answers are panache & self-assurance but I would like to understand why cant decorum & propriety pair up
?
You’re correct, decorum and propriety are a pair. But they’re not the answer since they don’t fit the sentence; they don’t describe someone whose ‘style and confidence are unparalleled.’ Panache and self-assurance, however, do describe such a person so that’s why they’re the correct pair.
In these types of questions there can be multiple synonym pairs, but only one pair will work in the sentence. I think it’s ETS’s way of making these types of questions harder. If there were only one pair, then that would be the answer. We wouldn’t even need to read the sentence. But when there are multiple pairs, we then have to really understand the sentence (using support/contrast and other strategies) in order to choose the correct pair and get the right answer.