Select the option which best fits the given blank/blanks. ______ spending…

Concept: In a two-blank vocabulary-in-context question, each blank must be filled with a word whose precise dictionary meaning matches the logical role the surrounding sentence assigns to it. Such sentences typically link a cause (a habit or trait) to its consequence (a resulting state or behaviour), and both chosen words must cohere with each other, not merely fit their own blank in isolation.

Application: The sentence describes someone who wasted his fortune through his spending habits, and who consequently had to become extremely careful with money later in life, saving every rupee of every small royalty payment. The first blank therefore needs a word meaning wastefully extravagant, describing the spending habit that caused the loss of fortune; the second blank needs a word for a person who is excessively frugal or stingy, matching the behaviour of pinching every rupee. Only the pair 'profligate, miser' supplies both meanings precisely: profligate means recklessly wasteful with money, and miser means an excessively stingy person - and the pairing is internally consistent, since a person who was once careless with money becoming, later, a person who guards it fits the sentence's own logic.

Cross-check: each remaining pair breaks down on at least one blank:

• 'sagacious, wastrel' - sagacious means wise and shrewd, the opposite of wasteful, so it cannot describe the fortune-losing spending habit; and wastrel itself names a person who squanders money, which is the opposite of someone who pinches every rupee.

• 'egregious, spendthrift' - egregious means shockingly or flagrantly bad in a general sense, not specifically wasteful spending; and spendthrift names a person who spends money freely and carelessly, directly contradicting a person who pinches every rupee.

• 'reckless, scapegoat' - reckless describes rash, thoughtless action in general rather than specifically extravagant spending; and scapegoat names a person blamed for others' mistakes, which has no bearing on being careful with money.