Word: ascent
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Glancing at his watch, the leader signaled to the others, and the trio, using their flippers to rise, promptly began their ascent by following a cable that led up to the Virazon. Reaching a white marker cylinder at the 20-ft. depth, they stopped, treading water for three minutes, before rising again to a second marker, at the 10-ft. level. There they waited for eleven minutes, passing the time by penciling messages to each other on a roughened Plexiglas tablet. The scheduled pauses were decompression stops that allowed the excess dissolved nitrogen to leave their bodies gradually...
...marries the boss, moves into a mansion and becomes more of a star than most of the characters she used to profile. After a few years, she writes her first novel, a steamy social satire and, of course, a sure best seller. It is the kind of dizzying ascent that Sally Quinn, the Washington Post's famous acid pen of the '70s, might have chronicled with flair. But she can't: the reporter-turned- hostessturned-novelist is Sally Quinn...
...habit of viewing it does not encourage reflection or contemplation. The eye is trained to crave novelty, while the brain rests or slumbers. Political debate, which during my last visit seemed a passion and a recreation among Americans, has shrunk to brief bursts of pleasant images. And television's ascent has coincided with a measurable decline in the ability of young people to read. Democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry. The paradox of television in forwarding such a goal seems clear: barring extraordinary circumstances, it can best summon the attention of most of the nation by presenting trivialities...
Like Giscard, Chirac began his ascent in the early '60s as an aide to the late President Georges Pompidou, who was so impressed by Chirac's seemingly indefatigable capacity for work that he called him "my bulldozer." After Pompidou's death in 1974, Chirac backed Giscard's candidacy for President. A grateful Giscard rewarded him with the premiership. Believing that he was not allowed enough leeway to carry out his economic policies, Chirac resigned in August 1976 and formed his own party, Rally for the Republic. The following year he was elected mayor of Paris. An able and efficient administrator...
Tammy was no great singer, and Jim no penetrating interviewer, but their TV ascent was rapid. Says their avuncular announcer, Henry Harrison: "They were just a cute little couple that people felt good about watching." Soon Bakker was giddily expanding religious and charitable works at home and abroad, though shunning politics...