In spite of all their shortcomings, we cannot ... admire them.

Analyze the question: The sentence is "In spite of all their shortcomings, we cannot ... admire them." We need a word that completes an idiomatic structure.

Concept: The idiom "cannot but + bare infinitive" means "have no choice but to" or "cannot help but." For example:

• "I cannot but admire her courage" means "I can't help admiring her courage."
• "We cannot but agree with you."

Here "but" works almost like "except," so "cannot but admire" means "can do nothing except admire."

Step-by-step test of the options:

• A. only – "cannot only admire them" is incomplete. It would need "but also" to make sense, so it doesn't fit.
• B. but – "we cannot but admire them" is the correct idiom. It means we have no choice except to admire them, which suits the idea of "in spite of their shortcomings."
• C. also – "cannot also admire them" is awkward and doesn't convey the intended meaning.
• D. still – "cannot still admire them" changes the meaning to something like "are no longer able to admire them," which is not the idea here.

Answer: The correct option is B. but.

Tip: Remember the pattern "cannot but + verb" = "cannot help but / must." Similar examples are "cannot but laugh" and "cannot but notice." WASSCE and JAMB love to test this idiom, so watch for it whenever you see "cannot ___" followed by a bare verb.