Word: function
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...sexual reproduction, whose reassortment of genes provides a vastly increased supply of genetic diversity for the mill of natural selection, it also developed species: groups of organisms that reproduce only by mating with other members of the same group, and not with members of other species. The evolutionary function of these fertility barriers is clear: diversity is necessary for evolution, but since a successful organism must have a reasonably balanced set of genes the diversity resulting from unlimited combinations from the pool of genetic material in the living world would not be useful. Species barriers eliminate the production of grossly...
Neruda's Memoirs are both moving and somehow unfulfilling. They are filled with philosophy and hope, much as is his poetry; and entangle the reader into an emotionally exhausting extent in the triumphs and tragedies of history. But the function of memoirs is to make a person more accessible, Neruda's don't bring us much closer to the poet than his verses already did. In a sense, the Memoirs are the prose form of his poetry--both are filled with nature, indignation and politics. And to a reader of Neruda's poetry, his Memoirs will contain little that...
...this perfection is, of course, a function of memoirs--to determine the way in which one will be viewed by history. The disagreements with popular sentiment, the quarrels with historical revelations, as in the case with Neruda's impressions about Stalin, can be glossed over...
...analysis is inaccurate first when he states that B.A.'s are brighter. The admissions standards at graduate business schools are at least as strict as those for undergraduate colleges. True, M.B.A.'s are more expensive, but this is a function of their greater immediate productivity. Finally, anybody who thinks that M.B.A.'s do not work hard should take a walk across the Charles and observe how their kindred live...
...merely listens to the debates, but the debaters must always realize that the final decision rests with him. Their straw votes, even their final recommendations, mean nothing if he decides on a different course. His presence adds some weight and importance to the proceedings, but the committee's function remains advisory rather than legislative...