Question

mike and matt went down into the , dusty basement to look for the old baseball cards. when the basement light went out, both boys’ fear was . they were only able to relax again when they heard their sister’s hysterical giggles from the direction of the light switch.

Answer 1

for plato users the first one is Dank and the second one is palpable

Answer 2

Hi,

I believe that the question asks you to fill in the gaps and that the options for the gaps are:
1) after "the" : ardent, dark, placid

Here the answer is "dark" since the other two describe mental states, not a place.
2) after "was": zealous, palpable,  mocking
 
Here the correct answer is "palpable" - you could feel the fear!