overstate, understate, subcommittee, anarchy, failure rate

J. K. Rowling: By the Book

The author of "Harry Potter" and, now, "The Casual Vacancy" says her favorite literary character is Jo March: "It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo."

Goldman Plans to Fight Back Against Senate Report

Goldman, trying to counter a Senate subcommittee report that is fueling investigations and suspicion of the firm, plans to accuse the subcommittee of drastically overstating the firm's bets against the housing market in 2007.

Goldman Plans to Fight Report on Mortgage Bets

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to accuse the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of drastically overstating Goldman's bets against the housing market in 2007, according to people familiar with the situation, in an attempt to counter a report from that subcommittee that is fueling investigations and suspicion of the securities firm.

It helped that our motion, “Print media is dead” (it should have been “are dead”, of course), was overstated. Print clearly isn’t dead. On my train to Scotland, as many people were lost in newspapers and books as in laptops and iPads.
我们的辩论动议“印刷媒体已经消亡”（当然，这里应该用复数）有些夸大其辞，这起到了一定的帮助作用。印刷品显然还没有消亡。在驶往苏格兰的火车上我注意到，把头埋在报纸和书里的人数，决不少于盯着笔记本电脑和iPad看的人。

Accounting Information as Political Currency

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5920.htmlCorporate donors that gave at least $10,000 to closely watched races in the U.S. congressional elections of 2004 were more likely to understate their earnings, say Harvard Business School's Karthik Ramanna and MIT colleague Sugata Roychowdhury. Such "downward earnings management" may have functioned as a political contribution. In this Q&A, Ramanna explains how accounting and politics influence each other.



 anarchy, failure (rate).

FAILURE RATE OF SCHOOLS OVERSTATED
When the Obama administration was seeking to drum up support for its education initiatives last spring, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Congress that the federal law known as No Child Left Behind would label 82 percent of all the nation’s public schools as failing this year. Skeptics questioned that projection, but Mr. Duncan insisted it was based on careful analysis. President Obama repeated it in a speech three days later. “Four out of five schools will be labeled as failing,” Mr. Obama said at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Va., in March. “That’s an astonishing number.” Now a new study, scheduled for release on Thursday, says the administration’s numbers were wildly overstated. The study, by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington research group headed by a Democratic lawyer who endorses most of the administration’s education policies, says that 48 percent of the nation’s 100,000 public schools were labeled as failing under the law this year. The article is in The New York Times.



由於麥克拉倫擅於宣傳，Sex Pistols迅速上位，憑首張單曲Anarchy in the UK一炮而紅，反建制歌曲God Save The Queen更成為Punk壇經典，


on Page 3: " ... co-operate with any form of authority rather than submit to anarchy. For a generation, these notions continued to work on people's minds, bestowing a sense ... "


failure rate
(′fāl·yər ′rāt)或故障失敗的比率
(engineering) The probability of failure per unit of time of items in operation; sometimes estimated as a ratio of the number of failures to the accumulated operating time for the items.

failure[fail・ure]

• レベル：最重要
• 発音記号[féiljər]
• 
  

[名][U][C]

1 （…での）失敗, しくじり, 不首尾((in, of ...))；失敗者, 落後者, 失敗した企て, 不できな物

a failure in business
商売の失敗（者）

the failure of a plan
計画の失敗.

2 怠慢, （…の）不履行((in ...))；（…）しない［できない］こと((in ..., to do))

a failure in duty
職務怠慢

a person's failure to appear
（人が）姿を見せないこと, 欠席, 欠勤.

3 （…の）不足, 欠乏, 不十分((of, in ...))

failure of nerve
臆病(おくびょう)さ

failure of issue
《法律》嗣子(しし)のないこと.

4 （特に活力・力などの）衰弱, 減退, （機能の）停止, 故障((of, in ...))；（臓器の）不全

a mechanical failure
機械の故障.

5 破産, 倒産

bank failure
銀行破綻(はたん).

6 （学校で）落第（生）；落第点, 不可. ▼通例Fマーク. ⇒GRADE[名]3

(fāl'yər)
n.

1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends: the failure of an experiment.
2. One that fails: a failure at one's career.
3. The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short: a crop failure.
4. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a power failure.
5. Nonperformance of what is requested or expected; omission: failure to report a change of address.
6. The act or fact of failing to pass a course, test, or assignment.
7. A decline in strength or effectiveness.
8. The act or fact of becoming bankrupt or insolvent.

[Alteration of failer, default, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French faillir, to fail. See fail.]

anarchy
noun [U]
lack of organization and control, especially in society because of an absence or failure of government:
What we are witnessing is the country's slow slide into anarchy.
The country has been in a state of anarchy since the inconclusive election.
If the pay deal isn't settled amicably there'll be anarchy in the factories.

anarchic
adjective
Milligan's anarchic humour has always had the power to offend as well as entertain.


anarchy
n., pl. -chies.

1. Absence of any form of political authority.
2. Political disorder and confusion.
3. Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.

[New Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhiā, from anarkhos, without a ruler : an-, without; see a–¹ + arkhos, ruler; see –arch.]

an・ar・chy

-->

━━ n. 無政府（状態）, （社会の）無秩序.
an・ar・chic, an・ar・chi・cal　━━ a.
an・ar・chism　━━ n. 無政府主義［状態］, 無秩序.
an・ar・chist, an・arch
　━━ n. 無政府主義者［党員］.

overstate
tr.v., -stat·ed, -stat·ing, -states.
To state in exaggerated terms. See synonyms at exaggerate.

overstatement o'ver·state'ment n.


understate
v., -stat·ed, -stat·ing, -states. v.tr.

1. To state with less completeness or truth than seems warranted by the facts.
2. To express with restraint or lack of emphasis, especially ironically or for rhetorical effect.
3. To state (a quantity, for example) that is too low: understate corporate financial worth.

[動](他)〈数・量・程度などを〉少なく［小さく, 弱く］言う；控えめに述べる［する］.
v.intr.
To give an understatement.