Word: avoidance
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...universities. In 1969, 7% of undergraduate grades were A's; by 1993, 26% were A's. At Harvard University, the proportion of A's rose from 22% in 1966 to 46% in 1996. WHY THE RISE? During Vietnam, the report says, professors helped failing undergrads stay in school to avoid the draft. In the 1980s, the problem worsened when students were invited to evaluate professors. THE CONSEQUENCES: Employers now view grades as less crucial in hiring, and rely more on other factors, such as personal references...
...Japan's fatal misstep was to avoid the short-term pain of closing down dud companies and faltering banks after the bubble burst, the so-called "creative destruction" the U.S. allowed in the 1990-91 recession and after the savings and loan collapse of 1988. Tokyo said it wanted to avoid layoffs, that companies would recover when the economy perked up. The real story is that Tokyo's instinctive reaction has been to dole out government contracts to construction companies and make banks provide cheap capital to keep retail empires going. (In January, the government backed a bailout of struggling...
...Under Observation Government officials accredited 26 E.U. observers for next month's presidential election - but excluded the Swedish head of the team and representatives from Britain, Denmark, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. The acceptance of observers was a key condition laid down by the E.U. if Zimbabwe is to avoid sanctions on its leaders. Authorities also denied that the tourist visa granted to E.U. delegation head Pierre Schori had been withdrawn but warned him not to make more political statements...
UNITED STATES Kyoto Alternative President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to tie reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions to economic output. He says his plan will avoid more than 500 million tons of heat-trapping gases over the next decade. But business participation is voluntary, and environmentalists say that Bush's own numbers show the plan will actually result in a 14% increase in emissions...
...frantic social life among the glitterati continued to the end. But De Salvo wanted to avoid "fetishizing the celebrity persona at the expense of looking at the work," preferring to present him as any other painter. Warhol, Pop Art pioneer, didn't live to see his prediction about fame come horribly true. He died unexpectedly in 1987 following a gall-bladder operation - in a hospital. He claimed his work was all surface and described himself as "deeply superficial." But somehow he raised shallowness to new heights...