Word: discern
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...Nonetheless, all of France remained fascinated last week with an extraordinary campaign by the Soviet government and the French Communist Party that demanded a greater diversity of views in the reporting by France's state-run radio and television networks. The reason for the hubbub was easy to discern: a desire to affect French news coverage of the Italian allegation that the Bulgarian secret police, and by implication the Soviet KGB, were behind Turkish Gunman Mehmet Ah Agca's attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul...
Government at the top is human analysis. The leaders of the two superpowers try to discern each other's intentions and resolve, hoping to leave impressions of their own self-confidence and strength. At great distances, through diplomats and letters, the task is nearly impossible; in the face-to-face encounters at summits there is a chance for better understanding, even a cautious friendship...
...reasons for black disaffection are easy to discern. For one thing, blacks have suffered badly during the current economic slump. Their jobless rate of 18.8% is almost double the general level. The Reagan Administration's conservative rhetoric, combined with its assaults on Big Government, activist courts and social welfare programs, have been interpreted by blacks as covert attempts to undermine the hard-won gains of the civil rights movement. Reviewing the record of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division since Reagan took office, a bipartisan task force of Washington lawyers charged last week that "the Administration...
...candidates, of course, always try to find and define what matters, but the voters do not always pay heed: on the morning after, national trends are often difficult to discern in mid-term elections. There is a certain wisdom in House Speaker Tip O'Neill's maxim that "all politics is local." Yet across the country this fall, the campaign cacophony of pointing with pride and viewing with alarm will largely focus on where the action has been the past two years: the state of the economy and the remarkable shift in domestic policy inaugurated by Reagan...
...HAVE TO SCRATCH very hard at the wrinkled brown skin of the summer's most adored cultural hero to find the skeleton of an old superstar. Even the advertising campaign for "E. T." hints coyly at a Significant Parallel for sharp-eyed moviegoers to discern: that now-famous elongated finger stretching down from the heavens to point at a human finger reaching up from the earth. Remind you of any famous creation scenes on chapel ceilings? One wonders: since E. T. 's last-minute Easter-like recovery conveniently leaves the door open for a sequel, can we expect...