Word: phrasings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...President, of course, will not phrase his State of the Union speech in quite such baldly political terms. But when he steps before a joint session of Congress and national-TV cameras Wednesday night, Reagan is expected to sound the themes he will be repeating throughout the 1984 campaign. His official announcement of his own political plans is scheduled for Sunday night, and Reagan still refuses to confirm publicly what all his aides assume to be as sure as sunrise: he will run for reelection. In any case, the address was drafted, primarily by Reagan, as a political document...
...attempt to demystify and de-mythify "the Bard" (a phrase that would never escape his lips unless they were twisted satirically), McKellen establishes two reference points between himself and Shakespeare. The first is that they were both helplessly smitten by the theater at tender ages. (He imagines a boyish Shake speare falling in behind a touring theatri cal company announcing its presence by parading down Stratford's main street; he recalls himself manipulating a cardboard Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons in a toy-theater production of Hamlet.) The second is that both grew...
Despite an occasional felicitous phrase--enzymes, for example, are described as "nature's answer to the blast furnace and the 10-ton press"--The Gene Age reads like a scrapbook of competent but unexceptional magazine articles. Sylvester and Klotz write clearly and chattily, but they lack a unifying theme. And their sections on the science of genetic engineering suffer from dull graphics poorly integrated with the text. Even the most sparkling writing could never explain molecular genetics without a good set of pictures; DNA for Beginners is thus far better for anyone interested in genetics out of pure curiosity...
...know whether or not a rape has taken place just because "a woman calls the police to report [it]." Indeed, one can imagine several scenarios in which a plaintiff's accusation of rape could be seriously doubted. Thus, the authors of the letter are right: "The use of the phrase 'alleged rape' implies that the victim's word is being questioned." This is desirable, because we (and the press) must not assume that a crime has been committed--it is the job of our legal system to determine this fact...
...accused may be called "alleged rapists" because under our law, a person is innocent until proven guilty. However, if a woman calls the police to report a rape, we must assyrne that a crime has been committed, whether or not the victim knew the assailants. The use of the phrase "alleged rape" implies that the victim's word is being questioned. Over two thirds of all rapes are committed by acquaintances of the victim. This does not lessen the severity of the crime...