Word: traites
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...American characteristics, none perhaps has been more enduring than the national preoccupation with newness. This trait nourishes invention, but faddishness as well. Its least attractive symptom may be Americans' rejection of almost anything old that is not a marketable antique. In no aspect of the nation's life has this been more evident than in the reckless, relentless assault on old buildings and neighborhoods. The "pull-down-and-build-over spirit," as Walt Whitman dubbed it, has been incalculably costly in terms of aesthetics, energy and the sense of continuity that binds communities and generations together...
...blame for the failure of this Romeo and Juliet must lie at the feet of Hughes and Shannon Gaughan as Juliet. Neither goes beyond the broad label of 'youth' to find some more specific trait in their characters to highlight; neither is terribly graceful on stage; and both annoyingly exploit some vocal and some non-verbal mannerisms...
...same problems with characterization punctuate Blumenfeld's performance as the magician. His Jewish-German accent, the only distinguishing trait of his character, quickly becomes cumbersome. Although his part is well-written, Blumenfeld's caricatured accent limits his portrayal, reducing the magician to a stereotype...
...regard to your incredibly unenlightened and sexist remark that Golda Meir "could be as unbending as any man": I deeply resent your identification of inflexibility as a male trait. What you want to say, I'm sure, is that when she felt it necessary to be so, Mrs. Meir could be as hard-nosed as any international politician, most of whom happen to be male...
...sensibility of the architecture school, a trait also found in Robert Stern's work. Stern's remarkable house in Armonk, N.Y., is like an assembly of delicately related fragments. One seems to be looking at a stage set that represents a villa. Instead of coalescing in the strong cubical masses of Italian country architecture, the walls are like screens, separated, undulating, shearing away from one another; the effect resembles painting as much as it does building, in its dematerialization and purity of effect-down to the smallest detail of a skylight...