Man has to be liberated from 'earthly' or 'materialistic' bondage and he should be united with 'spiritual' bondage, and hence 'spiritual' in option d would distort the sentence. When man's life is materialistic , God's abode should be the opposite of 'materialistic'. But 'permanent' does not suggest that. Whereas 'earthly' and 'transcendental' are antonyms and are the most appropriate word in the given context.

The part after the semicolon gives the clue. It states that they were used to watching things that get over fast, and therefore the cricket match seemed interminable (never ending). None of the other words is about the time factor except ‘evanescent’ which means short-lived and would not fit the sense. (inconsequential = unimportant; implausible = cannot be believed)

The sentence structure suggests that if biological clocks are a great advantage, then most organisms would possess them. [Or, if they are not an advantage, then organisms will not have them.] Therefore, the obvious value, leads us to expect that organisms possess them. (meager = small, slight; eschew = shun, avoid; ambivalent = ambiguous)

One should have to disentangle a skein or coiled and twisted bundle of yarn. Note how the presences of the verb disentangle, which may be used both figuratively and literally, influences the writer's choices of words. In this case, while line and strand are possible choices, neither word possesses the connotations of twisting and tangled contortions that make skeins the most suitable choice.

The behavior of the wife is described as ‘affectionate’ and so we require a word of similar weight for the first blank. Hence we eliminate ‘restrained’ and ‘unpleasant’. Also the Duke is described as ‘austere’ and is unlikely to approve of affectionate behavior. And so from the remaining choices we choose the negative word puerile.