Word: feigned
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Mcllroy's ruses worked in part because he had a real disability, a neurological disorder that affected his upper torso and arms and conceivably could have spread to other parts of his body. That made it easy for him to feign numbness wherever and whenever he chose. But he also could use medical jargon to describe the symptoms he could fake so well. When he suffered his frequent temporary losses of speech, he compensated by writing a technical account of his medical and personal history. These invariably included the fact that all his relatives had met violent deaths...
...avoid drawing attention to the fact that the reporter's own early presence on the scene is also much ado about nothing. Paradoxically, the presidential politicking season lengthens while voter interest declines. Much of the old gusto for hitting the campaign trail-which candidates sometimes had to feign and political junkies in the press corps sometimes had to suppress-has disappeared. It's now a long grind...
...prodding by the investigators, he would punch out his request and, more often than not, his buddy would comply. At first Sherman, older and apparently more quick-witted, seemed to make "errors." When asked to share an especially tasty item-say, chocolate-he occasionally ignored the request, seemed to feign ignorance or proffered something less desirable...
Indeed, to sociobiologists deceit is a crucial factor in evolution. Some birds, like the nighthawk, can feign a broken wing to lure predators away from a nest. In some avian species, a female that has been inseminated by a departed male may try to hide the fact, thus tricking a new male into investing his time and resources in offspring?and genes?that are not his. In the long run, however, natural selection sharpens up both the ability to cheat and the ability to detect cheating. Trivers and Dawkins suggest that the need for deceit?and for its detection?...
...Nobody wants to admit they're paranoid," David S. Goodman, a third-year student who remembered his first year as the worst of his life, said. "If you don't feign calmness, you go out the door," he added...