Final answer:
The speaker in the given sentence is unable to eschew her tendency toward expatiation, which means excessive elaboration or digression. This tendency turns a five-minute policy brief into an hour-long elaboration on the history of the region.
Step-by-step explanation:
The speaker in the given sentence is unable to eschew her tendency toward expatiation, which means excessive elaboration or digression. This tendency turns a five-minute policy brief into an hour-long elaboration on the history of the region. So, the correct options to fill in the blanks are:
a. Terseness
c. Elaboration