Word: comprehend
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...billion budget that President Truman requested in January could hardly be more difficult to comprehend if it were written in Roman numerals. Piled up in silver dollars, it would rise 152,935 miles; it totals nearly three times all the U.S. currency in circulation. Congress took one look at the monster and began screaming for cuts. The Administration replied, as usual: fine, but where? The legislators, as usual busy with many things (including their own pork barrels), have neither the time nor the technical manpower to work out a convincing answer...
...direction in the piece leaves a half hour of tenseness and doubts which are never fully resolved. And the vacillating, rhapsodic themes, occasionally broken by piquant pizzicatos and eerie glissandos, gave me a feeling of desolation throughout. Viewed in its entirety, the work is a lot more difficult to comprehend than its more lyrical sister concerto, by Alban Berg, and future performances would be most welcome. Two hearings of the concerto aren't enough to make Schonberg fans of anyone, but at least they served to stimulate interest, and I'm sure that is all the Longy School intended...
...Deweyite who concentrates solely on learning as a 'process' fails to comprehend that 'process' has no meaning apart from the question of direction ... To be of value, the repetition of any set of experiences must yield a body of pertinent generalizations...
...actual count, this cab driver (or his female counterpart, an anonymous scrubwoman) has been quoted 34 times in the past six months. He never yet has failed to comprehend both the broad picture and the significant detail behind each story, and his succinct wisdom is beautifully quotable. I haven't been able to figure out his nationality. Sometimes he is a shrugging Frenchman, frequently a shrewd but likable Cockney. In the Nov. 12 issue he is an analytical Swede ("the only thing that puzzles me is how could a simple Navy N.C.O. get access to so many top secrets...
...Here in America," warned Conant, "it is evident that many intelligent citizens fail to comprehend the role of theory in modern science. They do not understand the importance of improving and expanding the theoretical basis of chemistry...