1. The rain which had persisted through the previous few days
had now cleared up, and the sky was a pale and cloudless blue. Not
an umbrella day. 2. The Prime Minister said he would not let peace
negations be disrupted by the current wave of Islamic suicide bombings.
3. There were rumours of splits in the Cabinet and the Prime
Minister's popularity had reached an all-time low. 4. Thousands of
Chinese-flagged merchant ships now cross the ocean each year, giving
China plenty of justification for increasing naval presence. 5.
Franklin Roosevelt, the Depression-era USA president, once said the
Dominican republic could become the breadbasket of the Caribbean.
6. Taliban militants have used a heat-seeking surface-to-air missile
to attack a Western aircraft over Afghanistan. 7. Sushi chefs yesterday
claimed that a European Union health and safety directive
would ruin the quality of their food. 8. Germany and Britain improve
church attendance over the Christmas period. 9. Industry executives
expect job opportunities for home-based workers to grow
over the next five years. 10. He has already had two kidney transplants:
one from his sister, who made a live donation, and another
from a deceased donor. Neither procedure worked, and so he is back
on the kidney transplant waiting list. 11. Road deaths for the first
quarter of this year have nearly doubled compared with the same
period in 1991. 12. Even now, while the time is running so desperately
short, the Government is afraid of a green backlash to make
firm commitments. 13. A year after the sudden death of sitcom star
John Ritter, his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital where he was treated. 14. The district attorney dropped all
cruelty-to-animals charges for lack of evidence. 15. Teenage violence
is a problem seen everywhere from minor school fights to headline
crime stories. 16. Designers and manufacturers underlined her ability
to mix expensive designer clothes with off-the-peg items, often
from high-street stores. 17. He motioned him to a blue vinylcovered
sofa which along with a wood-pressed coffee table apparently
constituted the conference area of his office. 18. Less memorable
but equally unpopular has been the threat of shutting village
schools in the name of administrative efficiency. 19. His prominent
brown eyes were fixed in an unwavering stare upon Frank's tall elegance.
20. The decline in eurozone labour productivity growth has
come to a halt. 21. George Bush stated that he wanted to abolish
soft-money contributions from corporations and trade unions. 22.
The article rightly concludes that Europe needs more flexible labour-
market laws and more crossborder barking mergers. 23. The
country is not keeping up with demand for computer-graduates. 24.
Edwin smoked cigarettes and Alan was a pipe man. 25. Home shopping
is now very much de rigeur with the cash-rich, time-poor
mothers who make up Boden's target. 26. One man was killed and
another injured in a drive-by shooting in Manchester. 27. In giving
him a crushing parliamentary majority voters are handing him an
exceptionally strong mandate for a tax-cutting, welfare tightening,
business-friendly programme. 28. The two parties, at odds over practically
everything else, were committed at least to a land-for-peace
deal with Syria. 29. 'Fathers' rights' groups complain of an antifather
bias in the family court. 30. All over the rich world, there are
parents who leave the childproof lids off medicines because they
find them so fiddly, and office workers so irritated by self-closing
fire doors that they prop them open. 31. America's intelligence people
say Iran was trying to build the atomic bomb until 2003 but
probably stopped. 32. One of the early successes in the green boom
is Sun Flower; a solar-energy firm, which now has a stockmarket
value of nearly $6 billion. 33. It is important to understand media
consumption within the context of everyday life. 34. Today, thousands
of children are members of households where only one of their
birth parents — usually the mother — lives, and most have only limited
contact with the other non-resident parent, usually the father.
35. The former weather girl has become one of the best-known faces
on British television today. 36. As President of the International Equestrian Federation she is planning to concentrate on some particular
aspects, such as horse care, rider safety, international judging
standards and compliance with regulations.