Word: rigidness
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...Habits. The emergence of the Chinese diplomats has made them the most talked-about members of the international circuit. Though still as rigid and unsmiling as ever, they are beginning to show up at diplomatic receptions and are even inviting journalists to lunch. In Paris, at least, the Chinese diplomats seem to be slipping back into bourgeois habits despite the reindoctrination of the Cultural Revolution. The ambassador has exchanged his modest Peugeot for a Mercedes, which had been mothballed during the Revolution. The tight-collared Mao tunic is still the standard diplomatic uniform, though it is now smartly tailored...
...this optimism is the upheaval in geological thinking that took place during the 1960s. No longer is the earth's crust thought of as a rigid shell, but rather as a dozen gigantic, mobile "plates." These plates are thought to be driven slowly across the terrestrial surface by enormous currents within the earth. When two plates collide, one slides under the other, causing deep and devastating earthquakes like the one that rocked Peru in June. Shallower quakes occur when two plates slide past each other, as do the two sides of the San Andreas Fault system in California...
...enormous good for both sexes. As Kate Millett says: "We really don't have many fatuous hopes of taking over. We would like, very much, a fair shake. We are each half of a person, we are each less than we could be. If we did not have these rigid sexual roles, we would all have so much more room for spontaneous behavior?for doing things that we feel like doing, for following our own instincts, for being imaginative, for being creative. The great thing about it all is that we could not only change this, but in the process...
...years since independence, African women have discovered that although they have gained the right to vote and to seek positions of leadership, the rigid customs and dictates of their tribal societies have not kept pace with the times. The nomadic Turkana women of East Africa still perfume their bodies over fires of scented wood. The Hausa wives of northern Nigeria still amass huge fortunes in the form of thousands upon thousands of Japanese-made enamel bowls, which they cram into their huts, causing at least one Hausa husband to complain bitterly: "I don't even have enough room...
...these benefits, the federal worker puts up with inflexible work rules that hamper his initiative and a rigid salary system that limits his ambition. The 15-grade scale, which covers the overwhelming bulk of white-collar civil servants, runs from G51 for messengers, who start at $4,125, to GS-15 for program managers, who begin at $22,885. A medical aide (GS-2) makes $4,125 to start, and a typist (GS-3) $5,212. There are virtually no merit increases, and the periodic raises within each category are small. It would take 18 years for a worker...