1.   For a while, specialists recommended plastering with tape over the crack, in an attempt to span the crack and not recrack.

2.   The prosecution hopes his genuine pain over the murders of his two toddler sons will span any cracks in his character that cross-examination might show.

3.   The paint could not span those cracks, so it cracked as well.

4.   This is a real cloth, not paper, that will span the cracks and the cloth itself will resist cracking.