Word: inexact
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...first indications that the practitioners of that inexact science had overestimated the left's strength came only minutes after the first-round polls closed. It was obvious that the left's early lead was fast shrinking to invisibility. Computers tallying the vote on television soon made it clear that the leftist upset was caused by an unexpectedly poor showing by the Socialists. Watching TV in a hotel in Burgundy, Socialist Leader François Mitterrand turned to an aide and asked, "Is that really all?" Shortly thereafter, Mitterrand appeared on television to concede that "we expected...
Wide Variables. Though they have scant evidence to back their accusation, some Washington officials charge that the energy companies understate reserves in order to promote price deregulation. Industry leaders respond that estimating reserves is a highly inexact science. Explains Dale Wood-dy, chief of Exxon's domestic natural-gas operations: "Two well-qualified engineers can take the same raw data from a new field and come up with reserve estimates that may vary by more than...
...story, told frequently down in Maine, is doubtless apocryphal. But it reflects the fact that despite modern instruments and meteorological methods, weather forecasting of any kind remains at best an inexact science. Dreams of actually doing something about the weather are equally unrealistic. People pausing to rest as they shovel out from under this winter's snows or shivering in chilled homes may look longingly toward a day when science will be able to make weather to order. Was the Big Freeze really necessary? Answer: alas, yes. Despite some limited successes in making it rain on demand, most scientists...
...quake measuring 3.2 shook the ground about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Hollister. This successful, unpublicized prediction shows that scientists are moving closer to their goal of reliable earthquake forecasts (TIME cover, Sept. 1, 1975). But predicting how people will react to public forecasts is still somewhat of an inexact science...
...seems spun in webs of fragile silver," and on and on. Lovers and Tyrants is relentlessly overwritten; Gray leaves no noun unmodified in her search to recapture the past. She never settles for one evocative detail when a page-long list of sensations will do. Her diction is inexact ("voluminous" eyeglasses?) as is the overall effect of her prose...