Word: ferret
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Britain engaged in terrorizing refugees and, with threats of harm to relatives in Germany, coercing German-born servants in garrison centres to ferret out scraps of military information. One of the duties of these "journalists" is supposed to be to supply Berlin with the names, characteristics and political opinions of every German resident in Great Britain...
When the Refugee Committee holds its rally tonight, one or two ferret-eyed ladies of the Press will probably drop in at Saunders to see who goes there. And several officers of the university should drop in for the same purpose, because the success of the rally should largely determine University policy when similar plans arise in the future...
...mind which remains bewildered and can proceed only by burying the difficulty in a formula-retained, at best, by mere rote memory-is in this power to recognize the new problem as, in part, an old conquest." Intelligence in its highest form, he adds, is ability to ferret out the changed meaning of old words in new settings. E.g.: The water is boiling in the kettle. The kettle is boiling. ("Kettle" changes its meaning in the second sentence.) Mr. Richards' first lesson is on rhetoric, his first example a critic's comment on a passage in Sinclair Lewis...
...every field hasty, dishonest, and superficial criticism flourishes, and as the inevitable consequence, equally faulty and unmerited praise. The arts are the gravest sufferers in this respect, as the apathy of the public leads them to accept supinely, as Olympian, the judgments of the numerous committees founded to ferret but and annually reward the best work done. Chief among these, and the one whose decisions carry the most weight with the people, is the Pulitzer Prize Committee...
These seven Counselors will hold, apparently, one year appointments and are to perform no other teaching function than that of armchair pedagogues who sit and wait for pupils to ferret them out. From the lively group of Yardlings already on the trail of Americana under the direction of the Freshman pathfinder, and from the number who responded in one House to the experiment of an English tutor, there is certainly no lack of enthusiasm, which situation graces with practicality the scheme of House Counselors. Nevertheless, it seems plausible that the seven can be of greater service to the Plan...