Word: downright
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...cringe-worthy moments, director Vanessa Parise ’93 adds stylistic touches with her crafty camera work. Split-screen frames and smooth transitions are evidence of Parise’s creativity. Nevertheless, no amount of artistic flair can rescue the film from a handful of unnecessary and downright nonsensical scenes—such as a slap fight between Jack and his best friend, a moment that’s neither humorous nor important to the plot. Though a few superfluous lines are expected in any film, the already short 89-minute “Jack and Jill...
...other hand, Republican nominee John McCain’s “Service to America” biography tour—effectively an attempt to kill time until the fall—has been downright tedious. His well-worn personality parade pales in comparison to the current mood of cliffhanger ambiguity that still hangs over the Democratic nomination. Suddenly, what has often been an automatic nomination process has been ignited with uncertainty and thus interest. The theatrical element to Obama and Clinton’s tussle has generated public enthusiasm at a fever pitch, generating far more media coverage...
...Jiang's attempts to marshal modern history to conform to his ideas result in some passages that will strike many readers as far-fetched, if not downright silly. They also prevent a simple enjoyment of the book - its pleasant pastoral passages are sooner or later interrupted by jarring expositions that wouldn't look out of place in a 19th century manual of eugenics. Here's one from the novel's main character, Chen Zhen...
...world in carbon emissions, and most of its emissions come from deforestation. Carter is not a man who gets easily spooked--he led a reconnaissance unit in Desert Storm, and I watched him grab a small anaconda with his bare hands in Brazil--but he can sound downright panicky about the future of the forest. "You can't protect it. There's too much money to be made tearing it down," he says. "Out here on the frontier, you really see the market at work...
...three Houses a ways up Garden Street) is testament to this. (The next day of course, they’re all smiles as they’re welcomed to their new home of Pforzheimer House). Pride in your House assignment, one might go so far to say, is downright alien to the academic values to which most Harvard undergraduates ascribe; to have House pride is to take pride in something that was completely and utterly beyond your control...