Quick: decode this WSJ headline: New Breast Screening Limits Face Reversal A headline as dense as my compost heap! Am I confused because references to body parts distract the attention, or because the headline strings together four words in a row that are either verbs or verbal nouns (five, if you count "breast," as in "breast the waves"), or because "facing a reversal" is inherently paradoxical, or because after reading the apparent subject phrase "new breast screening" it's very difficult not to read "limits" as a verb (rather than as the completion of the subject phrase)?
Verbal noun mash-up dazes headline reader
Verbal noun mash-up dazes headline reader
Verbal noun mash-up dazes headline reader
Quick: decode this WSJ headline: New Breast Screening Limits Face Reversal A headline as dense as my compost heap! Am I confused because references to body parts distract the attention, or because the headline strings together four words in a row that are either verbs or verbal nouns (five, if you count "breast," as in "breast the waves"), or because "facing a reversal" is inherently paradoxical, or because after reading the apparent subject phrase "new breast screening" it's very difficult not to read "limits" as a verb (rather than as the completion of the subject phrase)?