Word: leap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...establishment of the People's Republic of China, Mao's position was immeasurably strengthened. Despite all that the Chinese people had endured, it seems not to have been too hard for Mao to persuade them of the visionary force and practical need for the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s. In Mao's mind, the intensive marshaling of China's energies would draw manual and mental labor together into a final harmonious synthesis and throw a bridge across the chasm of China's poverty to the promised socialist paradise on the other side...
...bunch of kids were up top, and a woman who appeared to be their mother was on the ground cheering them on. "Jump!" she shouted at them. I doubt they could hear, but still, I wasn't sure I would want one of my parents encouraging me to leap from a 16-story tower...
...asked to speak to the camera. What would I want my last words to be, playing over and over on CNN if I died this night and they got the videotape? I tried to say in Spanish, "If a man can leap into the air, he can do anything," only to realize Spanish was one instructor's native language. He made fun of my garbled Spanish by speaking rapid Spanglish nonsense to the camera...
...survived an 80-foot fall in Vegas, and for my $80 and leap of faith received a T-shirt, an official certificate of jumping (or of my insanity, claim some of my friends) and a videotape...
...Ultimately, though, From the Earth to the Moon suffers from a fundamental problem that its creators could do nothing about: the moon missions were a disappointment. They were thrilling while they took place, but that effect dissipated quickly in the 1970s, as NASA lost its way. Mankind's giant leap never seemed to take us beyond rocks and golf shots. Hanks may want to restore NASA's glory, but on the evidence so far, he hasn't succeeded. Like its subject, From the Earth to the Moon is, contrary to all expectations...