Incision and Coincide

What, exactly, is an event? An event is a stretch of time, and time, according to physicists, is a continuous variable—an inevitable cosmic flow, in Newton’s world, or a fourth dimension in a seamless hyperspace, in Einstein’s. But the human mind carves this fabric into the discrete swatches we call events. Where does the mind place the ______? Sometimes, as the lawyers for the World Trade Center leaseholder pointed out, the cut encircles the change of state of an object, such as the collapse of a building. And sometimes, as the lawyers for the insurers pointed out, it encircles the goal of a human actor, such as a plot being executed. Most often the circles ______: an actor intends to cause an object to change, the intent of the actor and the fate of the object are tracked along a single time line, and the moment of change marks the completion of the intent.

Which of the following is the BEST fit in the first blank?

Which of the following is the BEST fit in the second blank?


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