Word: detract
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...widespread student violence and truancy (42 percent in New York) plaguing public schools cannot be eradicated without a change in the students' attitudes toward education. Those who claim that affirmative action programs detract attention from the greater goal of rebuilding the public school system do not see that the two go hand in hand...
...slapstick movements aren't the only inexplicable sight gags. The matter of a male (Alexander Roe) in the female role of Mrs. Mallarkey is more than just sexually dubious. It doesn't detract from the production, but it doesn't seem to add anything either. We've all seen this trick too many times at the Pudding to be amused merely by sexual ambiguity...
...pack, and his surplus votes usually help elect other Independents like City Councilors Thomas W. Danehy and Daniel J. Clinton. This year's unexpectedly strong showing from Independent challengers William J. Walsh and Sheila T. Russell, who have shown strong neighborhood support and name recognition, are likely to detract surplus votes and may even unseat two incumbents, observers...
Residents of the area, known as Mid Cambridge, had charged that a bridge spanning Broadway St. would reduce sunlight, create a traffic hazard, and in general, detract from the aesthetics of their densely crowded neighborhood...
While Cimino has introduced a potentially interesting subject--the existence of a Chinese Mafia organized along the lines of ancient clan triads--he complicates The Year of the Dragon by inserting superfluous storylines that detract from the film's central theme. In addition to being superfluous, most of these supplementary plotlines are poorly written and even more poorly acted. In one particularly forgetable scene between White and his R.N. wife, she chews him out for forgetting to come home early and make love during her ovulation period; according to her, he's "missed target practice...