Word: avoid
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...parents moved when he was 2. He learned Ukrainian, majored in foreign languages at college, and now writes essays in Russian, Ukrainian, English and German. He also speaks Japanese, his fluency in which nearly landed him a stint monitoring Japanese radio traffic for the kgb in 1985. To avoid that, he worked as a prison guard in Odessa, where his job was to write papers for political indoctrination classes. That took about 30 minutes a day. For the rest of his remaining 18 months at the prison, Kurkov penned children's books. Writerly recognition took many years. Beginning...
Those who know Khamenei say he believes in Iran's right to nuclear power but also wants to avoid punishments that could cripple Iran and shake the theocratic regime's hold on power. "He's pragmatic, and in the end he makes decisions based on national interest," says a high-ranking official close to Khamenei. "He may well be the way out of this current impasse...
...History of the United States Navy During the Last War with Great Britain. First, in the eternal Darwinian struggle that took place between calculating, egoistic nation-states, it was essential for one country--in this case, the U.S. at the close of the 19th century--to avoid "a miserly economy in preparation for war." And for a state as dependent on sea power as America, it was unthinkable that the nation "rely for defence [sic] upon a navy composed partly of antiquated hulks, and partly of new vessels rather more worthless than the old." The U.S. was rising to world...
...after independence in 1947, the group came to symbolize all that was bad about Indian business. It lost its airline and insurance arm to nationalization. To avoid giving up more to the Congress Party socialists who ruled India for half a century, J.R.D. Tata, a distant cousin of Ratan Tata, emphasized individual companies over the group, keeping the conglomerate's stakes small and demanding little coordination. Meanwhile, shielded from competition by the restrictive bureaucracy of the "license Raj," Tata's companies became bloated and calcified. "We weren't driving ourselves hard enough in a protected environment," says Ratan Tata...
...rods sticking out of their sides, as if they were ripping a path for themselves through the trees. You cannot feel contempt for Mangalore now. You feel a sense of awe at how profoundly it has changed. But if you look a bit longer at the scene, you cannot avoid a faint inkling of something like fear...