Word: prone
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was the custom in almost all American colleges to punish students by fines; and indeed it was not until this century that fines were abolished at Harvard. Some colleges were said to derive quite a revenue from this source, and were not, therefore, prone to abolish a system so profitable to themselves. The worse the students behaved, the better it was for the college. At Harvard there was a schedule of fifty-five offences punishable by penalties varying from two pence, for absence from prayers, to two pounds ten shillings, for absence from town...
...that the gloomy clouds of the examination period darken our days. We are all prone to be in a rather irritable frame of mind, and are apt to become excited over trifles which pass unheeded in happier times. This state of feeling has been shown in past years by incessant complaints of the thought-lessness of those musically-inclined students who persist in keeping up a vigorous course of piano or violin practice during examination time, greatly to the annoyance and indignation of their temporarily studious neighbors. But this year there seems to be a lull in this species...
With our vacation just over and the midyears looming up before us, like a dark cloud on the horizon, we naturally feel that we are indeed in the very midst of the stern realities of student life, and, just as naturally, we are somewhat prone to resent any attempts to impose any extra work upon our already overburdened shoulders. But just at this critical time, the Juniors and Sophomores are fiddled with dismay at the announcement that a theme will be required from them on Wednesday next. Well, the ingenuity displayed by our instructors in selecting inopportune moments for springing...
Second - The system unavoidably fails, in some cases, to be a correct index of ability or industry. That would perhaps be a matter of small moment were it not that the public is prone to consider success or failure in gaining an honor the infallible test of a student's attainments. There are instances in which ill health, mobility to pursue a continuous course or other unavoidable circumstances prevent a student of genuine merit from reaching the required standard of excellence; and she is consequently, through no fault of her own, placed, in the judgment of outsiders, upon a level...
...obliged to teach the same old propositions year after year until they root themselves in his mind too deeply to be torn up. In ordinary life he has nobody to challenge his opinions and he must therefore be more likely than others to become dogmatic, and to be prone to wrath whenever he does encounter opposition. The reviewer then objects to Prof. Sumner because "he has set himself the task of proving that an opinion generally entertained upon both sides of the Atlantic during all past time is entirely erroneous" and so on. Space would not permit (if inclination would...