Word: ascendant
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...compromises, shortcuts or betrayals on which (at least in their view) other successful careers are built. But there is more to it than envy. Such essential qualities as character, honor, decency, intelligence, lovableness, dependability, common sense, humor and perception are randomly dispersed in the population and do not necessarily ascend on a parallel curve with a man's economic status. Nor do such qualities depend upon the amount of his schooling or "brains"; IQ tests do not measure character. This may be why William F. Buckley, that maverick among snobs, would rather be governed by the first...
...real test of whether Perón can restore stability to Argentina will not come until he officially takes over the reins of government. Speculation grew last week that he may yet ascend to the presidency without another election. His succession could be decided by the Peronist-controlled Congress, in which case Isabelita could conceivably be passed over for the vice presidency. Clearly, the new era of Perón has begun with more questions than answers. Yet it is a measure of the country's anguish that uncertainty can be a source of solace. "The only hopeful thing...
...until the Federal government began pressuring Harvard to end its discriminatory hiring in 1970 that women and blacks began to ascend to the higher rungs of the academic ladder. Under the executive orders issued in 1970 and 1972 Harvard, like thousands of others schools, businesses and other institutions employing one-third of the nation's labor force, could lose their Federal contracts if they fail to devise acceptable "affirmative action" plans for correcting discriminatory employment policies. Federal contracts comprise nearly one-third of Harvard's annual income--about $60 million last year...
Nonskiers cannot comprehend why otherwise rational people rise at dawn in order to buy a $10 ticket for the privilege of shivering in a slow-moving lift line to ascend slowly a hill that they will quickly slide down. Or to careen down a narrow, bumpy trail in a blinding snowstorm, watching for the hidden icy spot that could send them crashing into a tree trunk. The explanation is simple. Skiing is a feast for all the senses. It promises exhilaration, fresh air and muscle-taxing exercise; an hour of downhill skiing can burn up as many as 500 calories...
...Apollo's low-pressure (5 Ibs. p.s.i.) atmosphere of pure oxygen.* If they did not stop in the chamber on the way from Soyuz into Apollo, spacemen would get the bends-the sometimes fatal buildup of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream that afflicts deep-sea divers when they ascend too rapidly from the high-pressure depths...