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The blank is part of contrast signaled by the phrase “more X than Y; humans are contrasted with technologies. However, the sentence conveys agreement overall in that the statement preceding the semicolon agrees with the statement following the semicolon.

Thus, the contrast between humans and technologies should be in keeping with the known information that “Archaeologists have not yet been able to outsource the precise identification of color to machines.” Given this fact, it must be that humans are better than technologies at “distinguishing colors.” Notice that in this context, we can equate “distinguishing colors” with “the precise identification of color.”

So, if humans are better than technologies at distinguishing colors, then the synonym pair adept/proficient (skilled) make sense in context: “humans are still more adept/proficient at distinguishing colors than technologies are.” Choices (A) and (C) appear to be correct, but let’s make sure no other answer pair is more fitting.

Inept/unskilled are antonyms of adept/proficient, and thus are the opposite of what makes sense in the context of humans’ being better than technologies at distinguishing colors. We have to be careful here because “inept” looks a lot like the correct “adept,” but is actually the opposite of what we need. Eliminate choices (B) and (E).

The remaining two choices, “productive” and “reliable,” do not create the same sentence meaning, and thus we can eliminate (D) and (F).

Choices (A) and (C) are the only synonym pair that logically complete the sentence.