Question

though hailed by many members of sri lankas ethnic sinhalese majority for emerging victorious from the decades long conflict with the liberation tigers of tamil eelam, his reputation was dented by international criticism of his headlong rush into the wars final battle. source: time in this sentence, headlong means: excessively quick related or limited to a particular area periodically gathered over time free from disturbance by heavy waves

Explanation:

The context of the sentence is about rushing into a battle. "Headlong" in this context implies a hasty, overly quick action. The other options ("related or limited to a particular area" - which is more like "local", "periodically gathered over time" - no indication of time - gathering in the sentence, "free from disturbance by heavy waves" - nautical - wave - related, not relevant here) do not fit the battle - rushing context.

Answer:

excessively quick