Word: modicum
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...material for reading is on the whole good, but a method of teaching it in such a manner as to make it seem alive has not yet been worked out and probably never will be. The grammar can only be called a necessary nuisance. On the whole the modicum of French which will suffice to get a passing grade is surprisingly small, and the instructors have a happy habit of easing up on the final examination. Those who are not far enough advanced to take French 2, and lack the initiative to learn French by reading it, have no alternative...
...Thomas was interpreting his doctrine literally by leaving his chicken shanty unlocked in a spirit of welcome to rich man, poor man, beggar man, and even to thief, the burglar seems to have taken him at his word. And the doubting Thomas awoke yesterday morning to find that a modicum of his store had been spirited away, because, to use his own ungracious phrase, "he had been too dumb to have a lock...
...plot, though hackneyed, receives a sincere portrayal from the principals. A nice modicum of reserve in every detail of acting prevents, happily, the full realization of the chance for gross emotionalism. Such a background, of course, forms a perfect foil behind any genuine female charm, and Miss Helen Hayes takes full advantage of her chance. She is an unconvincing Chinese, but a superb mistress of the situation. Lien Wah's delicately expressive hands, and quaint self obliteration weave an incapable feminine charm through all the mess of uninteresting Oriental gore...
...need for the injection of at least a modicum of academic blood into the political system has been generally recognized, and seems to be, for the nonce, on the way to attention from those who hold the power of appointment. Such a measure as Senator Nicholson's represents a tawdry appeal to mass prejudice and will probably be defeated; if it is not, the movement toward an enlightened bureaucracy in Massachusetts will be set back many years...
...else can one consider the wealth of material that must be skimmed. The reading is a mosaic of short bits which fill in the ordinarily dull background of the lectures. The temporal scope of the material begins in colonial days with a certain amount of sentimental reading and a modicum of neat scholarly accounts. The course teaches the why and wherefor of some of the quirks of American intellects, after defining in ten sentences the constitution of an American. On the whole the work is entertaining for we are not more than three generations away from much...