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Ten Words from Today's NY Times - May 9, 2012

Ripped from the headlines! See full stories here: Behind Twists of Diplomacy in the Case of a Chinese Dissident, Maurice Sendak, Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83, and Lugar Loses Primary Challenge in Indiana.
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. broach
    bring up a topic for discussion
    Then, last Friday, she finally broached the subject with China’s senior foreign policy official, Dai Bingguo.
  2. erupt
    release suddenly and often violently something pent up
    “I don’t want to talk to him anymore,” Cui Tiankai, the vice foreign minister, erupted after Mrs. Clinton intervened, gesturing toward Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state and a crucial negotiator.
  3. replete
    deeply filled or permeated
    The confrontation was a pivotal moment in a diplomatic drama replete with unanticipated twists, threats and counterthreats, and at times comical intrigue.
  4. mercurial
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    The Americans were soon holding parallels sets of talks, with Mr. Campbell meeting with the Chinese and Mr. Locke and Mr. Koh effectively negotiating with a mercurial Mr. Chen.
  5. pervasive
    spreading or spread throughout
    In so doing, he was able to convey both the propulsive abandon and the pervasive melancholy of children’s interior lives.
  6. melancholy
    a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
    In so doing, he was able to convey both the propulsive abandon and the pervasive melancholy of children’s interior lives.
  7. hirsute
    having or covered with hair
    As portrayed by Mr. Sendak, the wild things are deliciously grotesque: huge, snaggletoothed, exquisitely hirsute and glowering maniacally.
  8. bowdlerize
    edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
    “In the Night Kitchen,” which depicts its young hero, Mickey, in the nude, prompted many school librarians to bowdlerize the book by drawing a diaper over Mickey’s nether region.
  9. brink
    the edge of a steep place
    Mr. Mourdock, meanwhile, has said that bipartisanship has led the nation to the brink of bankruptcy, and that the nation’s current circumstances call for a time of confrontation, not collegiality.
  10. tenuous
    having thin consistency
    He was required this year to change his voter registration to the farm his family has owned for years rather than the Indianapolis house he sold in 1977 — an episode that underscored how long he had been in Washington and, in the view of some, how tenuous his ties to Indiana now felt.
Created on Wed May 09 09:22:31 EDT 2012 (updated Wed May 16 09:15:57 EDT 2012)

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