W.C. Handy’s self-conferred sobriquet, “The Father of the Blues,” is widely ...................... ; although he composed and published the first written blues song, other musicians had been playing the blues for several years.
To figure out what fits in the blank, note the detour road sign “although” between the first and second halves of the sentence. This tells you that what came before will be contradicted by what comes after. The first clause tells you that Handy’s nickname is “self-conferred,” so you can speculate that not everyone shares Handy’s self-assessment. You could paraphrase the sentence this way to predict the blank: “Handy feels he’s the father of the blues, but other musicians ‘disagree.’” You’re looking for a synonym for “disagree.” You can eliminate choices (A), (D), and (F), which say that Handy’s moniker was professed, proven, or demonstrated—they mean the opposite of what you want. Choice (B), which states that Handy’s nickname was widely deconstructed, or “examined,” could be right since other musicians came up with a different opinion, so keep it as a possibility. Choice (C), disputed, has exactly the meaning you need, so keep this, too. That leaves choice (E) contested, which produces a sentence with the same meaning as choice (C), so (C) and (E) are the correct answers.