Word: perfectability
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Most of the first words were wieldy enough, at least to Melody: conductor, scientist, julep. Almost as fast as Pronouncer Benson S. Alleman rolled them off his 670-word list, they were shot back, letter-perfect, in Southern drawls, crisp New England accents or Midwestern twangs. Then one boy spelled ardent with an a, and a 14-year-old girl had the same trouble with lavender, ending with ar. Another victim spelled conscientious with a c instead of t. Clyde W. Dawson, 13, of New Mexico, tacked an se to the end of incandescence, and in a real gone voice...
Unlucky Round No. 13 started off ominously (mnemonic, bifurcation) but was the first perfect round of the day. The next round whittled down the boys' ranks by a whopping six. Melody spelled each word to herself, working up her confidence as, one by one, the others fell...
...double bill at Kirkland House is a perfect escape for anyone tired of studying. And who isn't? The project was cooked up by seniors to fill up their free springtime, and under the leadership of Paul Sperry they have chosen two delightful operas...
Reminiscing on his days in the College, one of the most perfect "debating types" of his era regretted that he had "never studied elocution or practised debating" as a preparation for public life. Still, he criticized the kind of debating in which "stress is laid, not on getting a speaker to think rightly, but on getting him to talk glibly on the side to which he is assigned, without regard either to what his convictions are or what they ought...
...look forward to when "sociology will very likely go mathematical." With a reserved smile, he predicts that then those who are unwilling to wrestle with complexities will stop reading sociology entirely. In writing five large books in as many years, however, Parsons admits he could not produce "polished or perfect" works. But sociology is not yet ready for a definitive work, he believes. When so many important problems await original exploration, "perfection can in a sense be a block to progress...