Word: strains
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Under the rule of Brezhnev and Kosygin, a grim new strain has entered into the Russian ballad. Some recent songs describe the insane asylums where more and more dissenters, whose "crimes" do not qualify for prosecution under Soviet law, are imprisoned with genuinely sick people. For example, Vladimir Vysotsky, a popular balladeer, has composed a song called The Psychiatric Lyric. He sings of the silent, incurable lunatics who stare at the terrified political prisoner as he lies in the ward. "They are madmen of all kinds, quiet ones, dirty ones-starved and beaten as part of their cure. If only...
...strain became too great, and after seven years together, the two separated. "Marriage to Barbra was a fantastic experience," says Gould. "It had a lot of chocolate souffle and things like that, but it was also like a bath of lava." Says Barbra: "It must have been very difficult for him. Marriages between people who are self-involved is hard. It's safer for actors not to be married to one another...
...long studied South Viet Nam's social structure, fears that the frantic crush of some 2,000,000 war refugees and at least an equal number of peasants into the cities may create unmanageable problems. South Viet Nam's public services are unable to cope with the strain. In all major cities, the sewage systems, garbage collection, telephones and electrical facilities are overtaxed to the point of collapse. Saigon's bankrupt bus system stopped operating last year. Danang lacks sewers and garbage disposal; its water supply is contaminated. All the cities have vast slum areas. Adequate housing...
Powerful Parasite. The classic disease is caused by Vibrio cholera bacteria, comma-shaped microbes that multiply in the intestine and thrive in contaminated water supplies. The bug responsible for the present pandemic, a strain first identified in 1906 at the Tor quarantine station in Egypt, is prolific and can quickly cause death if not treated promptly. It multiplies rapidly in the gut, producing millions of offspring in a matter of hours. The bacteria trigger a devastating diarrhea that can drain off as much as 15% of the body fluids in eight hours, depleting the body of water and essential salts...
...weakened stalks to collapse and, at worst, turns ears of corn into blackened rot. Called Southern-corn leaf blight, the fungus has long been confined to the South because its wind-borne spores do not survive the dryness of northern summers. Last year a new and more deadly mutant strain of the leaf blight appeared, and this year it spread north from Florida and Georgia. Farmers use chemical sprays to protect sweet table corn from the fungus, but spraying weekly and after every rain is too costly for the growers of corn raised for animal feed...