Word: paroxysms
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...Science Center, the extension of the dinner hour by 15 minutes, a successful Yale weekend, and eight well-attended milk-and-cookie breaks (the Ad Board reforms, the several pamphlets, and a number of other measures were not mentioned) the editorial slips into what seems a shocking paroxysm of short-term memory loss. Please allow me to remind you that in the past, on at least ten separate occasions, The Crimson has deemed that the council's most worthwhile endeavor has been the redistribution of at least two-thirds (actually over 70 percent in the last two years...
...small knot of foreigners still crazy or desperate enough to brave the mean streets of Beirut, it was one of the worst weeks in memory. In the short span of eight days, eight new hostages were swept up in a frightening new paroxysm of terrorist kidnapings. Almost any foreigner was fair game, and the reign of terror struck almost anywhere in the tortured city, from the backseat of a taxicab to a sun-drenched sidewalk, from a quiet hotel room to a seat of higher learning...
Every time a paroxysm of black unrest grips South Africa, followed by a crackdown by the white government of State President P.W. Botha, statesmen and politicians in Western capitals begin asking, Is there a way, any way short of military action for the world to force Pretoria to change its racial policies? Last week, as South Africa's current state of emergency entered its third week, the debate flared once more. Its focus: whether recent events require a major step-up in economic sanctions against South Africa, and whether such pressure would really contribute to banishing apartheid...
There was the expected debunking of the Republican candidate in Cambridge and New Haven, in the newsrooms of the big liberal papers, in the salons of trendy Georgetown. But what startled in the final weeks was the paroxysm of complaint against the voters, who, despite all the entreaties from these learned folks, made up their minds in impressive numbers to back President Reagan. For years these same voters had been praised and pumped up by overpaid TV commentators and underpaid instructors of political science as the most informed and best-educated and therefore the wisest electorate in the world. This...
...decline was depressingly easy to find. About 13% of all 17-year-olds, and perhaps 40% of minority youth, are considered functionally illiterate. In 19 academic achievement tests given in 21 nations, American students never finished first or second and were last seven times. Before Sputnik launched a paroxysm of educational reform in 1957, average test scores were actually higher than they are now. From 1963 to 1980, the average scores on Scholastic Aptitude Tests fell more than 50 points in verbal skills (to 424 out of 800) and 36 points in math (to 466). And there was a pronounced...