Argument Topics Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument.

A recent study shows that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of Asia. Interestingly, Asians, on average, eat 20 grams of soy per day, whereas North Americans eat virtually none. It turns out that soy contains phytochemicals called isoflavones, which have een found to possess disease!preventing properties. "hus, North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular asis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression. ############### "he following is ta$en from the editorial section of the local newspaper in %oc$ingham. &In order to save a considera le amount of money, %oc$ingham's century!old town hall should e torn down and replaced y the larger and more energy!efficient uilding that some citi(ens have proposed. "he old town hall is too small to comforta ly accommodate the num er of people who are employed y the town. In addition, it is very costly to heat the old hall in winter and cool it in summer. "he new, larger uilding would e more energy efficient, costing less per s)uare foot to heat and cool than the old hall. *urthermore, it would e possi le to rent out some of the space in the new uilding, there y generating income for the town of %oc$ingham.& ############### +laitown ,niversity needs oth afforda le housing for its students and a way to fund the uilding of such housing. "he est solution to this pro lem is to commission a famous architect $nown for e-perimental and futuristic uildings. It is common $nowledge that tourists are willing to pay money to tour some of the architect's uildings, so it can e e-pected that tourists will want to visit this new uilding. "he income from the fees charged to tourists will soon cover the uilding costs. *urthermore, such a uilding will attract new students as well as donations from alumni. And even though such a uilding will e much larger than our current need for student housing, part of the uilding can e used as office space. ############### "he following appeared in a usiness maga(ine. &As a result of numerous consumer complaints of di((iness and nausea, .romofoods re)uested that eight million cans of tuna e returned for testing last year. .romofoods concluded that the cans did not, after all, contain chemicals that posed a health ris$. "his conclusion is ased on the fact that the chemists from .romofoods tested samples of the recalled cans and found that, of the eight chemicals most commonly lamed for causing symptoms of di((iness and nausea, five were not found in any of the tested cans. "he chemists did find that the three remaining suspected chemicals are naturally found in all other $inds of canned foods.& ############### "he following appeared in a local newspaper.

&.eople should not e misled y the advertising competition etween +olde- and +old!Away, oth popular over!the!counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. /ach rand is accusing the other of causing some well!$nown, unwanted side effect0 +olde- is $nown to contri ute to e-isting high lood pressure and +old!Away is $nown to cause drowsiness. 1ut the choice should e clear for most health!conscious people0 +old!Away has een on the mar$et for much longer and is used y more hospitals than is +olde-. +learly, +old! Away is more effective.& ############### A fol$ remedy2 for insomnia, the scent in lavender flowers, has now een proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three wee$s on lavender! scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored. 3uring the first wee$, volunteers continued to ta$e their usual sleeping medication. "hey slept soundly ut wa$ened feeling tired. 3uring the second wee$, the volunteers discontinued their medication. As a result, they slept less soundly than the previous wee$ and felt even more tired. 3uring the third wee$, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two wee$s. "his shows that over a short period of time lavender cures insomnia. 2A fol$ remedy is usually a plant! ased form of treatment common to traditional forms of medicine, ones that developed efore the advent of modern medical services and technology. ############### "ypically, as people age, their one mass decreases, ma$ing them more vulnera le to one fractures. A recent study concludes that the most effective way to reduce the ris$ of fractures in later life is to ta$e twice the recommended dose of vitamin 3 and calcium daily. "he three!year study followed a group of *rench women in their eighties who were nursing!home residents. "he women were given daily supplements of twice the recommended dose of vitamin 3 and calcium. In addition, the women participated in a light weightlifting program. After three years, these women showed a much lower rate of hip fractures than is average for their age. ############### "he following appeared in a letter from a department chairperson to the president of .ierce ,niversity. &4ome studies conducted y 1ronston +ollege, which is also located in a small town, reveal that oth male and female professors are happier living in small towns when their spouses are also employed in the same geographic area. "herefore, in the interest of attracting the most gifted teachers and researchers to our faculty and improving the morale of our entire staff, we at .ierce ,niversity should offer employment to the spouse of each new faculty mem er we hire. Although we cannot e-pect all offers to e accepted or to e viewed as an ideal 5o offer, the money invested in this effort will clearly e well spent ecause, if their spouses have a chance of employment, new professors will e more li$ely to accept our offers.& ############### *or the past five years, consumers in +alifornia have een willing to pay twice as much for oysters from the northeastern Atlantic +oast as for 6ulf +oast oysters. "his trend egan shortly

after harmful acteria were found in a few raw 6ulf +oast oysters. 1ut scientists have now devised a process for $illing the acteria. 7nce consumers are made aware of the increased safety of 6ulf +oast oysters, they are li$ely to e willing to pay as much for 6ulf +oast as for northeastern Atlantic +oast oysters, and greater profits for 6ulf +oast oyster producers will follow. ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the mar$eting director of 1argain 1rand +ereals. &7ne year ago we introduced our first product, '1argain 1rand' rea$fast cereal. 7ur very low prices )uic$ly drew many customers away from the top!selling cereal companies. Although the companies producing the top rands have since tried to compete with us y lowering their prices, and although several plan to introduce their own udget rands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue ma$ing a profit. 6iven our success selling cereal, 1argain 1rand should now e-pand its usiness and egin mar$eting other low!priced food products as )uic$ly as possi le.& ############### "he 8o(art 4chool of 8usic should o viously e the first choice of any music student aware of its reputation. *irst of all, the 8o(art 4chool stresses intensive practice and training, so that students typically egin their training at a very young age. 4econd, the school has ample facilities and up!to!date professional e)uipment, and its faculty includes some of the most distinguished music teachers in the world. *inally, many 8o(art graduates have gone on to e the est $nown and most highly paid musicians in the nation. ############### "he following is a memorandum issued y the pu lisher of a newsmaga(ine, News eat, in the country of 3inn. &7ur poorest!selling maga(ine issues over the past three years were those that featured international news stories on their front covers. 7ver the same period, competing news! maga(ines have significantly decreased the num er of cover stories that they devote to international news. 8oreover, the cost of maintaining our foreign ureaus to report on international news is increasing. "herefore, we should decrease our emphasis on international news and refrain from displaying such stories on our maga(ine covers.& ############### "he following recommendation was made y the president and administrative staff of 6rove +ollege, a private institution, to the college's governing committee. &9e recommend that 6rove +ollege preserve its century!old tradition of all!female education rather than admit men into its programs. It is true that a ma5ority of faculty mem ers voted in favor of coeducation, arguing that it would encourage more students to apply to 6rove. 1ut eighty percent of the students responding to a survey conducted y the student government wanted the school to remain all female, and over half of the alumni who answered a separate

survey also opposed coeducation. :eeping the college all!female, therefore, will improve morale among students and convince alumni to $eep supporting the college financially.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the school oard in the town of +enterville. &All students should e re)uired to ta$e the driver's education course at +enterville ;igh 4chool. In the past two years several accidents in and around +enterville have involved teenage drivers. 4ince a num er of parents in +enterville have complained that they are too usy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers. Although there are two driving schools in +enterville, parents on a tight udget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. "herefore an effective and mandatory program sponsored y the high school is the only solution to this serious pro lem.& ############### "he following is a memorandum from the sales director to the president of the ;ealthy!and!6ood food company. &A recent study indicates that <enadial, a new margarine currently produced only in the country of Alta, actually reduces cholesterol levels. 3erived from the resin of pine trees, <enadial wor$s y activating a meta olic response that is not yet well understood. ;owever, cholesterol levels fell ten to fifteen percent among participants in the study who consumed <enadial daily, and the ris$ of heart attac$ y one!third. In addition, the new margarine is so popular that stores in Alta are una le to $eep it on their shelves. "herefore, if our company o tains the e-clusive right to sell <enadial internationally, our profits are sure to increase su stantially within a very short time.& ############### "he following is a letter that recently appeared in the 7a$ +ity 6a(ette, a local newspaper. &8em ership in 7a$ +ity's +ivic +lu # a clu whose primary o 5ective is to discuss local issues # should continue to e restricted to people who live in 7a$ +ity. .eople who wor$ in 7a$ +ity ut who live elsewhere cannot truly understand the usiness and politics of the city. It is important to restrict mem ership to city residents ecause only residents pay city ta-es and therefore only residents understand how the money could est e used to improve the city. At any rate, restricting mem ership in this way is unli$ely to disappoint many of the nonresidents employed in 7a$ +ity, since neigh oring /lm +ity's +ivic +lu has always had an open mem ership policy, and only twenty!five nonresidents have 5oined /lm +ity's +lu in the last ten years.& ############### "he following appeared in the annual report from the president of the National 1rush +ompany. &In order to save money, we at the National 1rush +ompany have decided to pay our employees for each rush they produce instead of for the time they spend producing rushes. 9e elieve that this policy will lead to the production of more and etter rushes, will allow us to reduce our staff

si(e, and will ena le the company factories to operate for fewer hours # resulting in savings on electricity and security costs. "hese changes will ensure that the est wor$ers $eep their 5o s and that the company will earn a profit in the coming year.& ############### "he following is a memorandum written y the director of personnel to the president of the +edar +orporation. &It would e a mista$e to rehire the 6ood!"aste +ompany to supply the food in our employee cafeteria ne-t year. It is the second most e-pensive caterer in the city. In addition, its prices have risen in each of the last three years, and it refuses to provide meals for people on special diets. =ust last month three employees complained to me that they no longer eat in the cafeteria ecause they find the e-perience 'un eara le.' 7ur company should instead hire 3iscount *oods. 3iscount is a family!owned local company and it offers a varied menu of fish and poultry. I recently tasted a sample lunch at one of the many companies that 3iscount serves and it was delicious # an indication that hiring 3iscount will lead to improved employee satisfaction.& ############### "he following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme .u lishing +ompany. &8any other companies have recently stated that having their employees ta$e the /asy %ead 4peed!%eading +ourse has greatly improved productivity. 7ne graduate of the course was a le to read a five!hundred!page report in only two hours> another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. 7 viously, the faster you can read, the more information you can a sor in a single wor$day. 8oreover, /asy %ead costs only ?@00 per employee # a small price to pay when you consider the enefits to Acme. Included in this fee is a three!wee$ seminar in 4pruce +ity and a lifelong su scription to the /asy %ead newsletter. +learly, Acme would enefit greatly y re)uiring all of our employees to ta$e the /asy %ead course.& ############### *rom a letter to the editor of a city newspaper. &7ne recent research study has indicated that many adolescents need more sleep than they are getting, and another study has shown that many high school students in our city are actually dissatisfied with their own academic performance. As a way of com ating these pro lems, the high schools in our city should egin classes at A030 A.8. instead of B030 A.8., and end the school day an hour later. "his arrangement will give students an e-tra hour of sleep in the morning, there y ma$ing them more alert and more productive. +onse)uently, the students will perform etter on tests and other assignments, and their academic s$ills will improve significantly.& ############### 1utter has now een replaced y margarine in ;appy .anca$e ;ouse restaurants throughout the southwestern ,nited 4tates. 7nly a out 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that

9A people out of 100 are happy with the change. *urthermore, many servers have reported that a num er of customers who still as$ for utter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. +learly, either these customers cannot distinguish margarine from utter, or they use the term ' utter' to refer to either utter or margarine. "hus, to avoid the e-pense of purchasing utter, the ;appy .anca$e ;ouse should e-tend this cost!saving change to its restaurants in the southeast and northeast as well. ############### 8any employees of ma5or ,nited 4tates corporations are fearful that they will lose their 5o s in the near future, ut this fear is largely unfounded. According to a recent study, a ma5ority of companies e-pected to ma$e new hires in the coming year, while fewer companies e-pected to lay off employees. In addition, although it is very distur ing to e laid off, the proliferation of programs and of wor$shops designed to improve 5o !finding s$ills has made eing laid off far less painful than it once was. ############### In the 1ayhead .u lic Ci rary, oo$s that are rarely orrowed continue to ta$e up shelf space year after year, while people who want to read a recent novel fre)uently find that the li rary's only copy is chec$ed out. +learly, the li rary's plan to replace oo$s that are orrowed no more than once a year with sufficient copies of more recent oo$s will solve this pro lem. "he protest we have heard since this plan was made pu lic has come from a small, and thus unrepresentative, group of some thirty people and so should therefore e ignored. ############### "he following appeared in a letter from the owner of the 4unnyside "owers apartment uilding to its manager. &7ne month ago, all the showerheads on the first five floors of 4unnyside" owers were modified to restrict the water flow to appro-imately 1D3 of its original force. Although actual readings of water usage efore and after the ad5ustment are not yet availa le, the change will o viously result in a considera le savings for 4unnyside +orporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. /-cept for a few complaints a out low water pressure, no pro lems with showers have een reported since the ad5ustment. +learly, restricting water flow throughout all the 20 floors of 4unnyside "owers will increase our profits further.& ############### "he following is a recommendation from the director of personnel to the president of .rofessional .rinting +ompany. &In a recent telephone survey of automo ile factory wor$ers, older employees were less li$ely to report that having a supervisor present increases their productivity. Among wor$ers aged 1A to 29, 2B percent said that they are more productive in the presence of their immediate supervisor, compared to 12 percent for those aged 30 or over, and only A percent for those aged @0 or over. +learly, if our printing company hires mainly older employees, we will increase productivity and save money ecause of the reduced need for supervisors. &

############### "he following appeared as part of an article in a health maga(ine. &A new discovery warrants a drastic change in the diets of people living in the ,nited 4tates. "wo scientists have recently suggested that omega !3 fatty acids Efound in some fish and fish oilsF play a $ey role in mental health. 7ur ancestors, who ate less saturated fat and more polyunsaturated fat, including omega !3 fatty acids, were much less li$ely to suffer from depression than we are today. 8oreover, modern societies # such as those in =apan and "aiwan # that consume large )uantities of fish report depression rates lower than that in the ,nited 4tates. 6iven this lin$ etween omega !3 fatty acids and depression, it is important for all people in the ,nited 4tates to increase their consumption of fish in order to prevent depression.& ############### A new report suggests that men and women e-perience pain very differently from one another, and that doctors should consider these differences when prescri ing pain medications. 9hen researchers administered the same dosage of $appa opioids # a pain$iller # to 2A men and 20 women who were having their wisdom teeth e-tracted, the women reported feeling much less pain than the men, and the easing of pain lasted considera ly longer in women. "his research suggests that $appa opioids should e prescri ed for women whenever pain medication is re)uired, whereas men should e given other $inds of pain medication. In addition, researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women. ############### "he following is a recommendation from the dean at *oley +ollege, a small li eral arts college, to the president of the college. &4ince college! ound students are increasingly concerned a out 5o prospects after graduation, *oley +ollege should attempt to increase enrollment y promising to find its students 5o s after they graduate. 8any administrators feel that this strategy is a way for *oley to compete against larger and more prestigious schools and to encourage students to egin preparing for careers as soon as they enter college. *urthermore, a student who must choose a career path within his or her first year of college and who is guaranteed a 5o after graduation is more li$ely to successfully complete the coursewor$ that will prepare him or her for the future.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of the 6lenville 6a(ette, a local newspaper. &7ver the past few years, the num er of people who have purchased advance tic$ets for the 6lenville 4ummer +oncert series has declined, indicating lac$ of community support. Although the weather has een unpredicta le in the past few years, this cannot e the reason for the decline in advance tic$et purchases, ecause many people attended the concerts even in ad weather. +learly, then, the reason for the decline is the choice of music, so the organi(ers of the concert should feature more modern music in the future and should e sure to include music composed y %icherts, whose recordings 6lenville residents purchase more often than any other contemporary recordings. "his strategy will undou tedly increase advance tic$et purchases and will increase attendance at the concerts.&

############### "he following is a letter from a professor at Ganadu +ollege to the college's president. &"he development of an e-tensive computer! ased long!distance learning program will enhance the reputation of Ganadu +ollege. "his program would allow more students to enroll in our courses, there y increasing our income from student tuition. "raditional courses could easily e adapted for distance learners, as was shown y the adaptation of two traditional courses for our distance learning trial pro5ect last year. Also, y using computer programs and taped lectures, faculty will have fewer classroom o ligations and more time to engage in e-tensive research, there y enhancing the reputation of Ganadu.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of the %oseville 6a(ette. &3espite opposition from some residents of 9est %oseville, the arguments in favor of merging the townships of %oseville and 9est %oseville are overwhelming. *irst, residents in oth townships are confused a out which authority to contact when they need a service> for e-ample, the police department in %oseville receives many calls from residents of 9est %oseville. "his sort of confusion would e eliminated with the merger. 4econd, the savings in administrative costs would e enormous, since services would no longer e duplicated0 we would have only one fire chief, one ta- department, one mayor, and so on. And no 5o s in city government would e lost # employees could simply e reassigned. 8ost importantly, the merger will undou tedly attract usiness investments as it did when the townships of ;amden and North ;amden merged ten years ago.& ############### "he 3epartment of /ducation in the state of Attra recommends that high school students e assigned homewor$ every day. Het a recent statewide survey of high school math and science teachers calls the usefulness of daily homewor$ into )uestion. In the district of 4anlee, AI percent of the teachers reported assigning homewor$ three to five times a wee$, whereas in the district of 8arlee, less than 2@ percent of the teachers reported assigning homewor$ three to five times a wee$. Het the students in 8arlee earn etter grades overall and are less li$ely to e re)uired to repeat a year of school than are the students in 4anlee. "herefore, all teachers in our high schools should assign homewor$ no more than twice a wee$, if at all. ############### A recent study suggests that people who are left!handed are more li$ely to succeed in usiness than are right!handed people. %esearchers studied photographs of 1,000 prominent usiness e-ecutives and found that 21 percent of these e-ecutives wrote with their left hand. 4o the percentage of prominent usiness e-ecutives who are left!handed E21 percentF is almost twice the percentage of people in the general population who are left!handed E11 percentF. "hus, people who are left!handed would e well advised to pursue a career in usiness, whereas people who are right!handed would e well advised to imitate the usiness practices e-hi ited y left! handers. ###############

"he following is a letter from an editor at Ci er .u lishing +ompany to the company's president. &In recent years, Ci er has unfortunately moved away from its original mission0 to pu lish the wor$s of regional small!town authors instead of those of ig!city authors. =ust last year, 90 percent of the novels we pu lished were written y authors who maintain a residence in a ig city. Although this change must have een intended to increase profits, it has o viously ac$fired, ecause Ci er is now in serious financial trou le. "he only way to address this pro lem is to return to our original mission. If we return to pu lishing only the wor$s of regional small!town authors, our financial trou les will soon e resolved.& ############### 4adly, widespread negative images of usinesspeople have een created in large part y television. +onsider the fact that, although they ma$e up a mere 10 percent of the characters in dramatic roles on television, usinesspeople are responsi le for a out one!fifth of all the crime on television shows. In fact, in a recent survey of television producers, only 3@ percent of the television roles for usinesspeople were viewed as positive ones. ############### "he following appeared as part of a recommendation made y a faculty mem er to the president of a large university. &Never once in our 1@0!year history as a university have we clarified our o 5ectives. ;ow, then, can we hope to adapt as an institution to the new challenges facing higher education. As a first step in this evolutionary process, therefore, we should send out )uestionnaires as$ing faculty mem ers why they teach, as$ing students what they want from this university, and as$ing former students what they gained from their own education here. 9hen the replies come in, we can ta ulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational mission. "his will surely result in improved programs at our university.& ############### "here is a general idea that a translation always fails to preserve some of the )ualities that distinguish the original wor$ # i.e., that 'something always gets lost in translation.' 9riters, critics, and the general reading pu lic unthin$ingly accept this clichJ. 1ut this elief is unwarranted0 translators are sometimes distinguished authors themselves, and some authors may even translate their own wor$s. As the translator pointed out in the preface to an /nglish version of 3ante's wor$s, the violin and the piano ma$e different sounds, ut they can play what is recogni(a ly the same piece of music. ############### "here is a general idea that waiters and waitresses are more li$ely to receive larger gratuities from large groups of people. A recent research study suggests this is not true. "he researchers e-amined the relationship etween the si(e of tips in restaurants and the num er of meals charged on the ill. "hey found that, while most tips were around 1@ percent, the minimum percentage considered appropriate, people dining alone tipped consistently more E19 percentF and those dining in groups of four or more tipped considera ly less E13 percentF than this 1@ percent

standard. "hese results strongly suggest that people dining in a group are less li$ely to feel personally responsi le for leaving an ade)uate or generous tip. ############### 4tatistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. "his evidence suggests that men are more li$ely to e distressed a out having dental wor$ done than women are. "hus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasi(e oth the effectiveness of their anesthetic techni)ues and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients. ############### "he citi(ens of *orsythe have adopted healthier lifestyles. "heir responses to a recent survey show that in their eating ha its they conform more closely to government nutritional recommendations than they did ten years ago. *urthermore, there has een a fourfold increase in sales of food products containing $iran, a su stance that a scientific study has shown reduces cholesterol. "his trend is also evident in reduced sales of sulia, a food that few of the healthiest citi(ens regularly eat. ############### ;umans arrived in the :ali$o Islands a out B,000 years ago, and within 3,000 years most of the large mammal species that had lived in the forests of the :ali$o Islands had ecome e-tinct. Het humans cannot have een a factor in the species' e-tinctions, ecause there is no evidence that the humans had any significant contact with the mammals. *urther, archaeologists have discovered numerous sites where the ones of fish had een discarded, ut they found no such areas containing the ones of large mammals, so the humans cannot have hunted the mammals. "herefore, some climate change or other environmental factor must have caused the species' e-tinctions. ############### "he following appeared in a newspaper feature story. &At the small, nonprofit hospital in the town of 4aluda, the average length of a patient's stay is two days> at the large, for!profit hospital in the near y city of 8egaville, the average patient stay is si- days. Also, the cure rate among patients in the 4aluda hospital is a out twice that of the 8egaville hospital. "he 4aluda hospital has more employees per patient than the hospital in 8egaville, and there are few complaints a out service at the local hospital. 4uch data indicate that treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of etter )uality than treatment in larger, for!profit hospitals.& ##############! "he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a farming pu lication. &9ith continuing pu licity a out the need for healthful diets, and with new research a out the harmful effects of eating too much sugar, nationwide demand for sugar will no dou t decline.

"herefore, farmers in our state should use the land on which they currently grow sugar cane to grow peanuts, a food that is rich in protein and low in sugar. *armers in the neigh oring country of .alin greatly increased their production of peanuts last year, and their total revenues from that crop were )uite high.& ############### "he following appeared in a recommendation from the president of Am urg's +ham er of +ommerce. &Cast 7cto er the city of 1elleville installed high intensity lighting in its central usiness district, and vandalism there declined almost immediately. "he city of Am urg has recently egun police patrols on icycles in its usiness district ut the rate of vandalism there remains constant. 4ince high intensity lighting is apparently the most effective way to com at crime, we should install such lighting throughout Am urg. 1y reducing crime in this way, we can revitali(e the declining neigh orhoods in our city.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the .ar$ville 3aily Newspaper. &"hroughout the country last year, as more and more children elow the age of nine participated in youth!league soft all and soccer, over A0,000 of these young players suffered in5uries. 9hen interviewed for a recent study, youth!league soft all players in several ma5or cities also reported psychological pressure from coaches and parents to win games. *urthermore, education e-perts say that long practice sessions for these sports ta$e away time that could e used for academic activities. 4ince the disadvantages apparently outweigh any advantages, we in .ar$ville should discontinue organi(ed athletic competition for children under nine.& ############### It is $nown that in recent years, industrial pollution has caused the /arth's o(one layer to thin, allowing an increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the /arth's surface. At the same time, scientists have discovered, the population of a species of salamander that lays its eggs in mountain la$es has declined. 4ince ultraviolet radiation is $nown to e damaging to delicate tissues and since salamander eggs have no protective shells, it must e the case that the increase in ultraviolet radiation has damaged many salamander eggs and prevented them from hatching. "his process will no dou t cause population declines in other species, 5ust as it has in the salamander species. ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electric power company. &4everal recent surveys indicate that homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy and manufacturers are now mar$eting many home appliances, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, that are almost twice as energy!efficient as those sold a decade ago. Also, new technologies for etter home insulation and passive solar heating are readily availa le to reduce the energy needed for home heating. "herefore, we anticipate that the total demand for electricity

in our area will not increase, and may decline slightly. 4ince our three electric generating plants in operation for the past 20 years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants should not e necessary.& ############### "he following recommendation was made y the ;uman %esources 8anager to the oard of directors of the *ancy "oy +ompany. &In the last three )uarters of this year, under the leadership of our president, .at 4alvo, our profits have fallen considera ly. "hus, we should as$ for her resignation in return for a generous severance pac$age. In .at's place, we should appoint %osa 9innings. %osa is currently president of 4tarlight =ewelry, a company whose profits have increased dramatically over the past several years. Although we will have to pay %osa twice the salary that .at has een receiving, it will e well worth it ecause we can soon e-pect our profits to increase considera ly.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of a news maga(ine. &+learly, the successful use of ro ots on missions to e-plore outer space in the past 20 years demonstrates that ro ots could e increasingly used to perform factory wor$ more effectively, efficiently, and profita ly than human factory wor$ers. "he use of ro ots in factories would offer several advantages. *irst, ro ots never get sic$, so a senteeism would e reduced. 4econd, ro ots do not ma$e mista$es, so factories would increase their output. *inally, the use of ro ots would also improve the morale of factory wor$ers, since factory wor$ can e so oring that many wor$ers would e glad to shift to more interesting $inds of tas$s.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum to faculty from the academic vice president of 9aymarsh ,niversity. &4o that we can etter accomplish 9aymarsh ,niversity's academic goals, we should adopt the 5o !opportunity E5o !opF program offered at .lateau "echnical +ollege and strongly encourage all students at 9aymarsh to participate in it. "he success of the 5o !op program at .lateau is evident0 7ver the past two years, more than B@K of the freshmen at .lateau have enrolled in the optional 5o !op program. 8oreover, at .lateau, the grades of 5o !op students are consistently higher than those of other students, 90K of the 5o !op students receive 5o offers within a month after their graduation, and most former 5o !op students report much success in their careers.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the new president of the .atriot car manufacturing company. &In the past, the ody styles of .atriot cars have een old!fashioned, and our cars have not sold as well as have our competitors' cars. 1ut now, since many regions in this country report rapid increases in the num ers of newly licensed drivers, we should e a le to increase our share of the

mar$et y selling cars to this growing population. "hus, we should discontinue our oldest models and concentrate instead on manufacturing sporty cars. 9e can also improve the success of our mar$eting campaigns y switching our advertising to the Houth Advertising agency, which has successfully promoted the country's leading soft drin$.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Armchair <ideo, a chain of video rental stores. &1ecause of declining profits, we must reduce operating e-penses at Armchair <ideo's ten video rental stores. %aising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our special argains. Instead, we should reduce our operating hours. Cast month our store in downtown 8arston reduced its hours y closing at I000 ..8. rather than 9000 ..8. and reduced its overall inventory y no longer stoc$ing any film released more than two years ago. 4ince we have received very few customer complaints a out these new policies, we should now adopt them at all other Armchair <ideo stores as our est strategies for improving profits.& ############### In each city in the region of "reehaven, the ma5ority of the money spent on government!run pu lic school education comes from ta-es that each city government collects. "he region's cities differ, however, in the value they place on pu lic education. *or e-ample, .arson +ity typically udgets twice as much money per year as 1lue +ity does for its pu lic schools # even though oth cities have a out the same num er of residents. It seems clear, therefore, that .arson +ity residents care more a out pu lic school education than do 1lue +ity residents. ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the 6randview +ity +ouncil from a local usiness leader. &3uring last year's severe drought, when the water supply in the 6randview city reservoir fell to an e-tremely low level, the city council imposed much more rigid water!rationing rules. 1ut 5ust after these rules were imposed, industrial growth in the area declined. "his clearly shows that the new rationing rules have hurt industry in 6randview. "herefore, to promote the health of the local economy, the city council should now stop water rationing.& ############### "he following appeared in a maga(ine article a out planning for retirement. &1ecause of its spectacular natural eauty and consistent climate, +learview should e a top choice for anyone see$ing a place to retire. As a onus, housing costs in +learview have fallen significantly during the past year, and real estate ta-es remain lower than those in neigh oring towns. Nevertheless, +learview's mayor promises many new programs to improve schools, streets, and pu lic services. %etirees in +learview can also e-pect e-cellent health care as they grow older, since the num er of physicians in the area is far greater than the national average.& ###############

"he following appeared in a rochure promoting the purchase of local franchises for a national chain of gyms. &Now is the time to invest in a .ower!Cift 6ym franchise so that you can profit from opening one of our gyms in your town. +onsider the current trends0 .ower!Cift 6yms are already popular among customers in @00 locations, and national surveys indicate increasing concern with weight loss and physical fitness. *urthermore, last year's sales of oo$s and maga(ines on personal health totaled more than ?@0 million, and purchases of home e-ercise e)uipment almost dou led. Investing now in a .ower!Cift 6ym franchise will guarantee a )uic$ profit.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of ;yper!6o "oy +ompany. &Cast year, sales of our *ierce *ighter toy airplane declined sharply, even though the toy had een a top seller for three years. 7ur customer surveys show that parents are now more worried a out youthful violence and are concerned a out etter education for their children. "herefore, to maintain profits we should discontinue all our action toys and focus e-clusively on a new line of educational toys. 4everal other toy companies have already egun mar$eting educational toys and report sales increases last year of 200 percent. And since the average family income is growing, sales of new ;yper!6o toys should also increase.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from a vice president of the 8egamart department store chain. &*or the third year in a row, the average household income in our country has risen significantly. "hat prosperity means that families are li$ely to e spending more time and money on leisure activities. 8egamart stores should therefore concentrate on enlarging and promoting its line of products typically used in leisure activities0 athletic and outdoor e)uipment, televisions, gourmet coo$ing e)uipment, and luggage and travel accessories.& ############### "he following appeared in an article in a maga(ine for writers. &A recent study showed that in descri ing a typical day's conversation, people ma$e an average of 23 references to watching television and only 1 reference to reading fiction. "his result suggests that, compared with the television industry, the pu lishing and oo$selling industries are li$ely to decline in profita ility. "herefore, people who wish to have careers as writers should ac)uire training and e-perience in writing for television rather than for print media.& ############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of a student newspaper. &In a recent survey, most students who were studying eginning %ussian gave higher course! evaluation ratings to classes taught y non!native %ussian spea$ers than to classes taught y

native %ussian spea$ers. "he reason that the non!native spea$ers were etter teachers of %ussian is easy to see0 the non!native spea$ers learned %ussian later in life themselves, and so they have a etter understanding of how the language can e taught effectively. "herefore, in order to improve instruction for all languages and also save money, our university should hire non!native spea$ers as language instructors instead of trying to find and recruit native spea$ers.& ############### "he following article appeared in a recent issue of a college newspaper. &Among all students who graduated from ;ooper ,niversity over the past five years, more physical science ma5ors than social science ma5ors found permanent 5o s within a year of graduation. In a survey of recent ;ooper ,niversity graduates, most physical science ma5ors said they elieved that the prestige of ;ooper ,niversity's physical science programs helped them significantly in finding a 5o . In contrast, social science ma5ors who found permanent employment attri uted their success to their own personal initiative. "herefore, to ensure that social science ma5ors find permanent 5o s, ;ooper ,niversity should offer additional social science courses and hire several new faculty mem ers who already have national reputations in the social sciences.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in one of +oleville's city newspapers. &/ven though a high percentage of +oleville +ity's usinesses failed last year, we who live in +oleville +ity should $eep in mind the fact that the +oleville region has attracted a great many new usinesses over the last three years. It is well $nown that new usinesses are, on average, much more li$ely to fail than are long!esta lished ones, so the usiness failures should not e considered a sign of poor economic health. Indeed, many analysts regard the presence of a significant num er of new companies among a region's usinesses as a sign of economic health. "hus +oleville +ity appears to e in good, not poor, economic shape.& ############### "he following appeared in a corporate planning memo at A1+ +ereal +ompany, the ma$ers of 1etter 1ran cereal. &4ales of 1etter 1ran have declined in recent years, for reasons that management has now identified. *irst, 1etter 1ran is a cereal with high sugar content, and recent research studies have found that most consumers say they are concerned a out the amount of sugar added to their rea$fast cereal. 4econd, the price of 1etter 1ran has increased y @ percent in each of the last three years. "herefore, to increase our company's profits we need to reduce the amount of sugar in 1etter 1ran and lower 1etter 1ran's price.& ############### "he following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.

&3uring her three years in office, 6overnor %iede urg has shown herself to e a worthy leader. 4ince she too$ office, crime has decreased, the num er of 5o s created per year has dou led, and the num er of people choosing to live in our state has increased. "hese trends are li$ely to continue if she is reelected. In addition, 8s. %iede urg has promised to ta$e steps to $eep ig companies here, there y providing 5o s for any new residents. Anyone who loo$s at 8s. %iede urg's record can tell that she is the est!)ualified candidate for governor.& ############### "he following appeared as part of a memo from the manager of an automo ile manufacturing company. &1ecause the demand for our automo iles is e-pected to increase dramatically, we need to open a new manufacturing plant as soon as possi le in order to continue to thrive. 7ur mar$eting pro5ections indicate that A0 million people will want to uy our automo iles, yet our e-isting plant can only produce L0 million automo iles. "he new plant can e opened on a part!time asis, with wor$ers from our e-isting site rotating responsi ilities, until an operational staff can e trained. A ma5or airplane manufacturer was e-tremely successful using this part!time rotating strategy when it opened its new plant five years ago.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in a local newspaper. &In order to attract visitors to +entral .la(a downtown and to return the pla(a to its former glory, the city should prohi it s$ate oarding there and instead allow s$ate oarders to use an area in 8onroe .ar$. At +entral .la(a, s$ate oard users are a out the only people one sees now, and litter and defaced property have made the pla(a unattractive. In a recent survey of downtown merchants, the ma5ority supported a prohi ition on s$ate oarding in the pla(a. +learly, anning s$ate oarding in +entral .la(a will ma$e the area a place where people can congregate for fun or for rela-ation.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter from a political organi(ation. &In order to promote economic growth in the city, city residents should vote 'yes' on the state government's proposal to uild a new e-pressway lin$ing the outlying su ur s directly to the city center. A direct lin$ to the city center will ena le downtown usinesses to receive deliveries more fre)uently, so that downtown retailers will no longer run out of stoc$ and city manufacturers will not e affected y shortages of materials. 1ooming usinesses will attract )ualified wor$ers from all over the state, wor$ers who will e a le to ta$e advantage of the new e-pressway to commute to wor$ in our city. In addition to these advantages, hundreds of wor$ers will e employed to uild the e-pressway, further stimulating the local economyM& ############### "he following appeared as part of a memo from the manager of a ha(ardous!waste disposal company.

&7ur new plan will help us etter protect our staff against e-posure to to-ic chemicals0 9e are fitting each new safety suit with an alarm that will sound in the main control ooth when the suit is punctured. "he control ooth will notify the managers on duty, who will then ta$e the necessary steps to ensure employees' safety. In addition to the o vious safety!related enefits, the fast reaction time will ensure minimal wor$ stoppage and thus result in increased wor$er productivity and company profita ility.& ############### "he following appeared in a recommendation from the planning department of the city of "ransopolis. &"en years ago, as part of a comprehensive ur an renewal program, the city of "ransopolis adapted for industrial use a large area of severely su standard housing near the freeway. 4u se)uently, several factories were constructed there, crime rates in the area declined, and property ta- revenues for the entire city increased. "o further revitali(e the city, we should now ta$e similar action in a declining residential area on the opposite side of the city. 4ince some houses and apartments in e-isting near y neigh orhoods are currently unoccupied, alternate housing for those displaced y this action will e readily availa le.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. &"he mem ers of the town school oard should not e reelected ecause they are not concerned a out promoting high!)uality education in the arts in our local schools. *or e-ample, student participation in the high school drama clu has een declining steadily, and this year the school oard refused to renew the contract of the drama director, even though he had received many awards for his original plays. 8eanwhile, over ?300,000 of the high school udget goes to athletic programs, and the head foot all coach is now the highest!paid mem er of the teaching staff.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the sales manager of /co!.ower, a company that manufactures tools and home appliances. &8any popular radio and television commercials use memora le tunes and song lyrics to call attention to the products eing advertised. Indeed, a recent study of high school students showed that A@ percent could easily recogni(e the tunes used to advertise leading soft drin$s and fast!food restaurants. 3espite our company's e-tensive advertising in maga(ines during the past year, sales of our home appliances declined. "herefore, to oost company profits, we should now switch to advertisements featuring a distinctive song.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a company that uilds shopping malls throughout the country.

&"he surface of a section of %oute 101, paved two years ago y 8cAdam %oad 1uilders, is now adly crac$ed and marred y dangerous potholes. In another part of the state, a section of %oute II, paved y Appian %oadways more than four years ago, is still in good condition. Appian %oadways has recently purchased state!of!the!art paving machinery, and it has hired a new )uality!control manager. 1ecause of its superior wor$ and commitment to )uality, we should contract with Appian %oadways rather than 8cAdam %oad 1uilders to construct the access roads for all our new shopping malls.& ############### "he following appeared in a newspaper feature story. &"here is now evidence that the rela-ed manner of living in small towns promotes etter health and greater longevity than does the hectic pace of life in ig cities. 1usinesses in the small town of Ceeville report fewer days of sic$ leave ta$en y individual wor$ers than do usinesses in the near y large city of 8ason +ity. *urthermore, Ceeville has only one physician for its one thousand residents, ut in 8ason +ity the proportion of physicians to residents is five times as high. And the average age of Ceeville residents is significantly higher than that of 8ason +ity residents. "hese findings suggest that people see$ing longer and healthier lives should consider moving to small communities.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the general manager of :N79 radio station. &4everal factors indicate that radio station :N79 should shift its programming from roc$!and! roll music to a continuous news format. +onsider, for e-ample, the num er of older people in our listening area has increased dramatically, while the total num er of our listeners has recently declined. Also, music stores in our area report decreased sales of recorded music. *inally, continuous news stations in neigh oring cities have een very successful, and a survey ta$en 5ust efore the recent election shows that local citi(ens are interested in ecoming etter informed a out politics.& ############### "he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a local 4olano newspaper. &"he 4olano school district should do away with its music education programs. After all, music programs are not especially popular in our schools0 7nly 20 percent of our high school students participated in music programs last year. *urthermore, very few of the 4olano district's college! ound students are interested in ma5oring in music at the university level. Also, when the school district of our neigh oring town of %utherford eliminated its music programs two years ago, the overall grade point average in the high school increased y 10 percent the ne-t year. 4urely the money spent on 4olano music programs could e etter used to improve the )uality of traditional academic courses.& ############### "he following appeared as part of an article in a local 1eauville newspaper.

&According to a government report, last year the city of 3illton reduced its corporate ta- rate y 1@ percent> at the same time, it egan offering relocation grants and favora le rates on city utilities to any company that would relocate to 3illton. 9ithin 1A months, two manufacturing companies moved to 3illton, where they employ a total of 300 people. "herefore, the fastest way for 1eauville to stimulate economic development and hence reduce unemployment is to provide ta- incentives and other financial inducements that encourage private companies to relocate here.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of 8ira <ista +ollege to the college's oard of trustees. &At near y 6reen 8ountain +ollege, which has more usiness courses and more 5o counselors than does 8ira <ista +ollege, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had 5o offers from prospective employers. 1ut at 8ira <ista +ollege last year, only B0 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would e see$ing employment had found full!time 5o s within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their ma5or field of study. "o help 8ira <ista's graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in usiness and computer technology and hire additional 5o counselors to help students with their resumJs and interviewing s$ills.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in the local newspaper of 3alton. &9hen the neigh oring town of 9illiamsville adopted a curfew four months ago that made it illegal for persons under the age of 1A to loiter or idle in pu lic places after 10 p.m., youth crime in 9illiamsville dropped y 2B percent during curfew hours. In 9illiamsville's town s)uare, the area where its citi(ens were once most outraged at the high crime rate, not a single crime has een reported since the curfew was introduced. "herefore, to help reduce its own rising crime rate, the town of 3alton should adopt the same $ind of curfew. A curfew that $eeps young people at home late at night will surely control 5uvenile delin)uency and protect minors from ecoming victims of crime.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo written y a dean at 1uc$ingham +ollege. &"o serve the housing needs of our students, 1uc$ingham +ollege should uild a new dormitory. 1uc$ingham's enrollment is growing and, ased on current trends, should dou le over the ne-t fifty years, thus ma$ing e-isting dormitories inade)uate. 8oreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has increased in recent years. +onse)uently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off!campus housing. *inally, an attractive new dormitory would ma$e prospective students more li$ely to enroll at 1uc$ingham.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo at the GHN company.

&9hen GHN lays off employees, it pays 3elany .ersonnel *irm to offer those employees assistance in creating resumJs and developing interviewing s$ills, if they so desire. Caid!off employees have enefited greatly from 3elany's services0 last year those who used 3elany found 5o s much more )uic$ly than did those who did not. %ecently, it has een proposed that we use the less!e-pensive 9alsh .ersonnel *irm in place of 3elany. "his would e a mista$e ecause eight years ago, when GHN was using 9alsh, only half of the wor$ers we laid off at that time found 5o s within a year. 8oreover, 3elany is clearly superior, as evidenced y its igger staff and larger num er of ranch offices. After all, last year 3elany's clients too$ an average of simonths to find 5o s, whereas 9alsh's clients too$ nine.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of 6roveton +ollege. &"o com at the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students, these institutions should adopt honor codes similar to 6roveton's, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty mem er if they suspect that others have cheated. 6roveton's honor code replaced an old!fashioned system in which students were closely monitored y teachers and an average of thirty cases of cheating per year were reported. "he honor code has proven far more successful0 in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty!one cases of cheating> five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. 8oreover, in a recent survey conducted y the 6roveton honor council, a ma5ority of students said that they would e less li$ely to cheat with an honor code in place than without.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum written y the vice president of Nature's 9ay, a chain of stores selling health food and other health!related products. &.revious e-perience has shown that our stores are most profita le in areas where residents are highly concerned with leading healthy lives. 9e should therefore uild our ne-t new store in .lainsville, which has many such residents. .lainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and e-ercise clothing are at all!time highs. "he local health clu , which nearly closed five years ago due to lac$ of usiness, has more mem ers than ever, and the weight training and aero ics classes are always full. 9e can even anticipate a new generation of customers0 .lainsville's schoolchildren are re)uired to participate in a 'fitness for life' program, which emphasi(es the enefits of regular e-ercise at an early age.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter sent y a committee of homeowners from the 3eerhaven Acres to all homeowners in 3eerhaven Acres. &4even years ago, homeowners in near y 1roo$ville community adopted a set of restrictions on how the community's yards should e landscaped and what colors the e-teriors of homes should e painted. 4ince then, average property values have tripled in 1roo$ville. In order to raise property values in 3eerhaven Acres, we should adopt our own set of restrictions on landscaping and housepainting.& ###############

"he following appeared in a newspaper article a out law firms in the city of 8egalopolis. &In 8egalopolis, the num er of law school graduates who went to wor$ for large, corporate firms declined y 1@ percent over the last three years, whereas an increasing num er of graduates too$ 5o s at small, general practice firms. /ven though large firms usually offer much higher salaries, law school graduates are choosing to wor$ for the smaller firms most li$ely ecause they e-perience greater 5o satisfaction at smaller firms. In a survey of first!year students at a leading law school, most agreed with the statement that earning a high salary was less important to them than 5o satisfaction. "his finding suggests that the large, corporate firms of 8egalopolis will need to offer graduates more enefits and incentives and reduce the num er of hours they must wor$.& ############### "he following was posted on an Internet real estate discussion site. &7f the two leading real estate firms in our town # Adams %ealty and *itch %ealty # Adams is clearly superior. Adams has L0 real estate agents. In contrast, *itch has 2@, many of whom wor$ only part!time. 8oreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of *itch, and included home sales that averaged ?1IA,000, compared to *itch's ?1LL,000. ;omes listed with Adams sell faster as well0 "en years ago, I listed my home with *itch and it too$ more than four months to sell> last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it too$ only one month. "hus, if you want to sell your home )uic$ly and at a good price, you should use Adams.& ############### "he following appeared in the usiness section of a newspaper. &6iven that the num er of people in our country with some form of arthritis is e-pected to rise from L0 million to I0 million over the ne-t twenty years, pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs for the treatment of arthritis should e very profita le. 8any analysts elieve that in ten years 1ecton .harmaceuticals, which ma$es Genon, the est!selling drug treatment for arthritis, will e the most profita le pharmaceutical company. 1ut the patent on Genon e-pires in three years, and other companies will then e a le to produce a cheaper version of the drug. "hus, it is more li$ely that in ten years the most profita le pharmaceutical company will e .er$ins .harmaceuticals, ma$er of a new drug called Gylan, which clinical studies show is preferred over Genon y seven out of ten patients suffering from the most e-treme cases of arthritis.& ############### "he following was written as a part of an application for a small usiness loan y a group of developers in the city of 8onroe. &A 5a(( music clu in 8onroe would e a tremendously profita le enterprise. +urrently, the nearest 5a(( clu is I@ miles away> thus, our proposed clu , the + Note, would have the local mar$et all to itself. .lus, 5a(( is e-tremely popular in 8onroe0 over 100,000 people attended 8onroe's 5a(( festival last summer, several well!$nown 5a(( musicians live in 8onroe, and the highest!rated radio program in 8onroe is '=a(( Nightly,' which airs every wee$night. *inally, a nationwide study indicates that the typical 5a(( fan spends close to ?1,000 per year on 5a(( entertainment. It is clear that the + Note cannot help ut ma$e money.&

############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the +learview newspaper. &In the ne-t mayoral election, residents of +learview should vote for Ann 6reen, who is a mem er of the 6ood /arth +oalition, rather than for *ran$ 1raun, a mem er of the +learview town council, ecause the current mem ers are not protecting our environment. *or e-ample, during the past year the num er of factories in +learview has dou led, air pollution levels have increased, and the local hospital has treated 2@ percent more patients with respiratory illnesses. If we elect Ann 6reen, the environmental pro lems in +learview will certainly e solved.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum issued y the strategic planning department at 7mni Inc. &8esa *oods, a manufacturer of snac$ foods that currently mar$ets its products within a relatively small region of the country, has strong growth potential. 8esa en5oyed a 20 percent increase in profits last year, and its est!selling product, 3ia oli)ue 4alsa, has had increased sales over each of the past three years. 4ince 7mni Inc. is interested in reaching 1L!to!2@ year olds, the age group that consumes the most snac$ food, we should uy 8esa *oods, and concentrate in particular on mar$eting 3ia oli)ue 4alsa throughout the country.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at 7mega ,niversity. &*ifteen years ago, 7mega ,niversity implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. 4ince that time, 7mega professors have egun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at 7mega have risen y thirty percent. .otential employers apparently elieve the grades at 7mega are inflated> this would e-plain why 7mega graduates have not een as successful at getting 5o s as have graduates from near y Alpha ,niversity. "o ena le its graduates to secure etter 5o s, 7mega ,niversity should now terminate student evaluation of professors.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a 1atavia newspaper. &"he department of agriculture in 1atavia reports that the num er of dairy farms throughout the country is now 2@ percent greater than it was 10 years ago. 3uring this same time period, however, the price of mil$ at the local /-cello *ood 8ar$et has increased from ?1.@0 to over ?3.00 per gallon. "o prevent farmers from continuing to receive e-cessive profits on an apparently increased supply of mil$, the 1atavia government should egin to regulate retail mil$ prices. 4uch regulation is necessary to ensure oth lower prices and an ade)uate supply of mil$ for consumers.& ###############

"he following appeared in a memo from the mayor of the town of 9est /gg. &"wo years ago, our consultants predicted that 9est /gg's landfill, which is used for gar age disposal, would e completely filled within five years. 3uring the past two years, however, town residents have een recycling twice as much aluminum and paper as they did in previous years. Ne-t month the amount of material recycled should further increase, since charges for gar age pic$up will dou le. *urthermore, over ninety percent of the respondents to a recent survey said that they would do more recycling in the future. 1ecause of our residents' strong commitment to recycling, the availa le space in our landfill should last for considera ly longer than predicted.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Alta 8anufacturing. &3uring the past year, Alta 8anufacturing had thirty percent more on!the!5o accidents than near y .anoply Industries, where the wor$ shifts are one hour shorter than ours. /-perts elieve that a significant contri uting factor in many on!the!5o accidents is fatigue and sleep deprivation among wor$ers. "herefore, to reduce the num er of on!the!5o accidents at Alta and there y increase productivity, we should shorten each of our three wor$ shifts y one hour so that our employees will get ade)uate amounts of sleep.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the chief e-ecutive of a video game company. &9e have recently een offered the opportunity to uy the rights to produce a video game ased on the soon!to! e!pu lished children's oo$ '4)uirrel .ower,' y .eter 9ood. 9hile the cost of the rights is su stantial and will place economic constraints on our company in the short!term, there are two reasons that the purchase of these rights will undou tedly e a wise investment. *irst, 9ood's last three oo$s have een est sellers and the movie ased on his first oo$ was highly profita le. 4econd, the popular characters and story line in '4)uirrel .ower' will save us time in developing our video game, there y reducing our costs.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the owner of 6reen "hum 6ardening +enter, a small usiness serving a su ur an town. &"here is evidence that consumers are ecoming more and more interested in growing their own vegeta les. A national survey conducted last month indicated that many consumers were dissatisfied with the )uality of fresh vegeta les availa le in supermar$ets. And locally, the gardening maga(ine 6reat6ardens has sold out at the <illage News stand three months in a row. "hus, we at 6reen "hum 6ardening +enter can increase our profits y greatly e-panding the variety of vegeta le seeds we stoc$ for gardeners this coming spring.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter offering advice to investors.

&7ver A0 percent of the respondents to a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their inta$e of foods containing fats and cholesterol, and today low!fat products a ound in many food stores. 4ince many of the food products currently mar$eted y 7ld 3airy Industries are high in fat and cholesterol, the company's sales are li$ely to diminish greatly and their profits will no dou t decrease. 9e therefore advise 7ld 3airy stoc$holders to sell their shares and other investors not to purchase stoc$ in this company.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper from a citi(en of the state of Impecunia. &"wo years ago our neigh oring state, Cucria, egan a state lottery to supplement ta- revenues for education and pu lic health. "oday, Cucria spends more per pupil than we do, and Cucria's pu lic health program treats far more people than our state's program does. If we were to esta lish a state lottery li$e the one in Cucria, the profits could e used to improve our educational system and pu lic health program. "he new lottery would dou tless e successful, ecause a survey conducted in our capital city concludes that citi(ens of Impecunia already spend an average of ?@0 per person per year on gam ling.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the 9alnut 6rove town newspaper. &9alnut 6rove's town council has advocated switching from /N 3isposal Ewhich has had the contract for trash collection services in 9alnut 6rove for the past ten yearsF to A1+ 9aste, ecause /N recently raised its monthly fee from ?2,000 to ?2,@00 a month, whereas A1+'s fee is still ?2,000. 1ut the town council is mista$en> we should continue using /N. /N collects trash twice a wee$, while A1+ collects only once. 8oreover, /N # which, li$e A1+, currently has a fleet of 20 truc$s # has ordered additional truc$s. *inally, /N provides e-ceptional service0 A0 percent of respondents to last year's town survey agreed that they were 'satisfied' with /N's performance.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in a .runty +ounty newspaper. &In an attempt to improve highway safety, .runty +ounty recently lowered its speed limit from @@ miles per hour to L@ on all ma5or county roads. 1ut the @@ mph limit should e restored, ecause this safety effort has failed. 8ost drivers are e-ceeding the new speed limit and the accident rate throughout .runty +ounty has decreased only slightly. If we want to improve the safety of our roads, we should instead underta$e the same $ind of road improvement pro5ect that 1utler +ounty completed five years ago0 increasing lane widths and resurfacing rough roads. "oday, ma5or 1utler +ounty roads still have a @@ mph speed limit, yet there were 2@ percent fewer reported accidents in 1utler +ounty this past year than there were five years ago.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter from the manager of a roc$ and named 3ou le %ice.

&7ne year ago, tic$ets for 3ou le %ice's concerts in stadiums around the country too$, on average, at least 2L hours to sell out, if they sold out at all. 1ut the and has een en5oying a surge in nationwide popularity among 1L to 2@ year olds, and the 30,000 tic$ets for a recent concert in 8egalopolis sold out in 12 minutes. +learly the tic$et sales in 8egalopolis are a result oth of the and's increased popularity and of the advertising campaign run in 8egalopolis y the Ad Ci advertising agency. "hus, in order to ensure that the and's success in 8egalopolis is repeated across the country, the and should hire Ad Ci to duplicate the 8egalopolis ad campaign on a nationwide scale.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the 1almer Island 6a(ette. &"he population of 1almer Island increases to 100,000 duing the summer months. "o reduce the num er of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of 1almer Island should limit the num er of mopeds rented y each of the island's si- moped and icycle rental companies from @0 per day to 30 per day during the summer season. 1y limiting the num er of rentals, the town council is sure to attain the @0 percent reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year in the neigh oring island of "orseau, when "orseau's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the new vice president of 4artorian, a company that manufactures men's clothing. &*ive years ago, at a time when we had difficulties in o taining relia le supplies of high!)uality wool fa ric, we discontinued production of our delu-e alpaca overcoats. Now that we have a new fa ric supplier, we should resume production. "his coat should sell very well0 since we have not offered an alpaca overcoat for five years and since our ma5or competitor no longer ma$es an alpaca overcoat, there will e pent!up customer demand. Also, since the price of most types of clothing has risen in each of the past five years, customers should e willing to pay significantly higher prices for alpaca overcoats than they did five years ago, and our company profits will increase.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the president of a company that uilds and sells new homes in 4teel +ity. &7ver the past five years, the population of 4teel +ity has increased y more than 20 percent, and family incomes in 4teel +ity have risen much faster than the national average. Nationwide, sales of houses priced a ove ?1@0,000 have increased more than have sales of lower!priced houses. 4uch data indicate that we should ma$e changes in our usiness to increase company profits. *irst, we should uild fewer low!priced houses than we did last year and focus instead on uilding houses designed to sell at a ove ?1@0,000. 4econd, we should hire additional wor$ers so that we can uild a larger total num er of houses than we did last year.& ###############

A recent sales study indicated that consumption of seafood dishes in 1ay +ity restaurants has increased y 30 percent over the past five years. Het there are no currently operating city restaurants that speciali(e in seafood. 8oreover, the ma5ority of families in 1ay +ity are two! income families, and a nationwide study has shown that such families eat significantly fewer home!coo$ed meals than they did a decade ago ut at the same time e-press more concern a out eating healthily. "herefore, a new 1ay +ity restaurant speciali(ing in seafood will e )uite popular and profita le. ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the president of <iva!"ech, a manufacturer of high!tech medical e)uipment. &In order to reduce costs, we should close some of our e-isting small assem ly plants and uild a large central plant. 6randview would e an ideal location for this new plant. *irst, of the locations that we have considered, 6randview has the largest adult population, so that we will e a le to staff our plant )uic$ly and easily. 4econd, since the average wage earned y wor$ers in 6randview is less than that in the other locations, we should e a le to $eep production costs low. Cast, as an inducement for us to uild there, 6randview's town council has offered to allow us to operate for the first three years without paying city ta-es.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the mayor of the town of ;opewell. &"wo years ago, the town of 7cean <iew uilt a new municipal golf course and resort hotel. 3uring the past two years, tourism in 7cean <iew has increased, new usinesses have opened there, and 7cean <iew's ta- revenues have risen y 30 percent. "he est way to improve ;opewell's economy, and generate additional ta- revenues, is to uild a golf course and resort hotel similar to those in 7cean <iew.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the chairperson of the school oard in the town of 4aluda. &*or the past five years, 8r. +harles 4chade has een the music director at 4teel +ity ;igh 4chool, and during that time the school and from 4teel +ity ;igh has won three regional and competitions. In addition, the )uality of the music rehearsal facilities and musical instruments at 4teel +ity ;igh has improved mar$edly over the past five years. 1ecause of such successes at 4teel +ity ;igh, the 4aluda school oard should hire 8r. 4chade to plan and direct the general music education programs for the entire 4aluda school system.& ############### "he following appeared as part of a memo from the president of Automate, a company that manufactures automo iles.

&It has come to my attention that 4par$s, Inc., the manufacturing company that 5ust moved into our state, is advertising 5o openings at salaries that are twice as high as those paid to our e-perienced assem ly!line wor$ers. 4ome of our employees have already left to wor$ for 4par$s. In order to $eep our est staff, we must pay them salaries e)ual to those 4par$s pays its employees. 7therwise we will continue to lose employees in the future, ecause 4par$s must staff the additional new plants that it plans to uild in the state.& ############### "he following is a memo from the superintendent of the 8ylar school district. &A recent si-!month study, in which rea$fast was made availa le at school for 100 schoolchildren ages five to twelve, found that children on the rea$fast plan were less li$ely than other children to e a sent from or late for school. +learly, eating rea$fast efore school plays a role in reducing student a senteeism and tardiness. It is also well $nown that children who regularly eat a healthful rea$fast tend to perform etter in school. "herefore, in order to reduce a senteeism and tardiness and to improve academic performance in all of 8ylar's elementary and secondary schools, we should provide rea$fasts for all students efore each school day.& ############### 9hen Ida 8cAllister ran for mayor of Ca$e +ity four years ago, she failed to win even 30 percent of the vote. 1ut since then, 8cAllister has made pu lic her commitment to environmental causes. 4he would e wise, therefore, to announce her intention to close all Ca$e +ity par$s to automo ile traffic, thus following the e-ample of the former mayor of .lainsville, Alecia Hu . 7n the recommendation of a small group of concerned citi(ens, 8ayor Hu prohi ited automo ile traffic in all .lainsville par$s, and therefore was credited with solving the pollution pro lem and improving the )uality of life in .lainsville. "his action would have great appeal to the citi(ens of Ca$e +ity, most of whom participate in the community's recycling program, and would guarantee 8cAllister's success in her current )uest to e Ca$e +ity's new mayor. ############### According to information recently reported in the /liottown 6a(ette, the num er of people who travel to /liottown has increased significantly over the past several years. 4o far this year over 100,000 people have arrived on flights to /liottown's airport, compared with only A0,000 last year and L0,000 the year efore. /liottown's train station has received more than @0,000 passengers this year, compared with less than L0,000 last year and 20,000 the year efore. +learly tourism in /liottown has een increasing, than$s to the new +entral .ar$ and 8useum of 8odern Art that opened last year. "herefore, the funding for the par$ and museum should e increased significantly. ############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of a newsmaga(ine. &4ome states are creating new laws that restrict the use of handheld cell phones y drivers of automo iles. 4uch legislation, however, is sheer folly. Although some people with cell phones undou tedly cause pro lems on the road, including serious accidents, the ma5ority do not. 1esides, pro lems are also caused y drivers who are distracted y any num er of other activities,

from listening to the radio to disciplining children. 4ince there is no need to pass legislation restricting these and other such activities, it follows that there is no need to restrict people's freedom to use a device that they find convenient # or helpful in emergencies.& ############### ,ntil recently, people in ;iparia did most of their shopping y driving to shopping malls. "hey are eginning, however, to do more of their shopping y ordering merchandise from mail!order catalogs and the Internet. "hese purchases are delivered to them y mail or y a delivery service. *or many purchases, ;iparians no longer need to drive to and from shopping malls> there will therefore e a resulting reduction in the consumption of vehicle fuel in ;iparia. ############### "he following report appeared in an archaeology 5ournal. &"he discovery of distinctively shaped ceramic pots at various prehistoric sites scattered over a wide area has led archaeologists to as$ how the pots were spread. 4ome elieve the pot ma$ers migrated to the various sites and carried the pots along with them> others elieve the pots were spread y trade and their ma$ers remained in one place. Now, analysis of the ones of prehistoric human s$eletons can settle the de ate0 high levels of a certain metallic element contained in various foods are strongly associated with people who migrated to a new place after childhood. 8any of the ones found near the pots at a few sites showed high levels of the metallic element. "herefore, it must e that the pots were spread y migration, not trade.& ############### 8il$ and dairy products are rich in vitamin 3 and calcium, su stances essential for uilding and maintaining ones. 8any people therefore elieve that a diet rich in dairy products can help prevent osteoporosis, a disease in which the ones wea$en significantly with age and that is lin$ed to oth environmental and genetic factors. 1ut a long!term study of a large num er of people has found that those who have consistently consumed dairy products throughout the years of the study have a higher rate of one fractures than any other participants in the study. 4ince one fractures are a symptom of osteoporosis, this study result shows that a diet rich in dairy products may actually increase, rather than decrease, the ris$ of osteoporosis. ############### "he following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered y the residents of 8entia. &4alicylates are mem ers of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, for the past several decades food!processing companies have also een adding salicylates to foods as preservatives. "his rise in the commercial use of salicylates has een found to correlate with a steady decline in the average num er of headaches reported y participants in our twenty!year study. %ecently, food! processing companies have found that salicylates can also e used as flavor additives for foods. 9ith this new use for salicylates, we can e-pect a continued steady decline in the num er of headaches suffered y the average citi(en of 8entia.&

############### "he following appeared in an article written y 3r. :arp, an anthropologist. &"wenty years ago 3r. *ield, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of "ertia and concluded from his o servations that children in "ertia were reared y an entire village rather than y their own iological parents. ;owever, my recent interviews with children living in the group of islands that includes "ertia show that these children spend much more time tal$ing a out their iological parents than a out other adults in the village. "his research proves that 3r. *ield's conclusion a out "ertian village culture is false, and thus that the o servation!centered approach to studying cultures is invalid. 1ecause they are using the interview!centered method, my team of graduate students wor$ing in "ertia will esta lish a much more accurate understanding of child! rearing traditions there and in other island cultures.& ############### 9oven as$ets characteri(ed y a particular distinctive pattern have previously een found only in the immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village of .alea and therefore were elieved to have een uni)ue to the .alean people. %ecently, however, archaeologists discovered such a '.alean' as$et in Cithos, an ancient village across the 1rim%iver from .alea. "he 1rim%iver is very deep and road, and so the ancient .aleans could only have crossed it y oat, ut there is no evidence that the .aleans had oats. And oats capa le of carrying groups of people and cargo were not developed until thousands of years after the .alean people disappeared. 8oreover, .aleans would have had no need to cross the river # the woods around .alea are full of nuts, erries, and small game. It follows that the so!called .alean as$ets were not uni)ue to .alea. ############### "he following memo appeared in the newsletter of the 9est 8eria .u lic ;ealth +ouncil. &An innovative treatment has come to our attention that promises to significantly reduce a senteeism in our schools and wor$places. A study reports that in near y /ast 8eria, where fish consumption is very high, people visit the doctor only once or twice per year for the treatment of colds. +learly, eating a su stantial amount of fish can prevent colds. 4ince colds are the reason most fre)uently given for a sences from school and wor$, we recommend the daily use of Ichthaid, a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil, as a good way to prevent colds and lower a senteeism.& ############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of ;umana +ollege. &Cast year the num er of students who enrolled in long!distance degree programs at 7mni, niversity increased y @0K. 3uring the same year, 7mni showed a significant decrease from prior years in e-penditures for dormitory and classroom space, most li$ely ecause instruction in the long!distance programs ta$es place via interactive video computer connections. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at ;umana +ollege has diminished and costs of maintaining uildings have risen. "hus, to increase enrollment and solve the pro lem of udget deficits at ;umana +ollege, we should initiate and actively promote long!distance degree programs li$e those at 7mni.&

############### "he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of /-cello *ood 8ar$ets. &In 90 towns where /-cello has food mar$ets, natural!food stores speciali(ing in organic food products # products containing no chemical preservatives and made with foods grown without pesticides # have opened near y as competitors. 4urveys of our own customers reveal a growing concern a out foods grown using pesticides or preserved with chemicals. %ecently our mar$et in 4un +ity participated in a local food tasting fair, and B@ percent of the fair goers who visited the /-cello ooth re)uested free samples of organic fruit. 4uch evidence indicates that to increase our profits, we should egin to stoc$ a full line of organic food products in all our mar$ets.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a food!distri ution company with food!storage warehouses in several cities. &%ecently we signed a contract with "he *ly!Away .est!+ontrol +ompany to provide pest! control services at our fast!food warehouse in .alm +ity, ut last month we discovered that over ?20,000 worth of food there had een destroyed y pest damage. 8eanwhile, the 1u((off .est! +ontrol +ompany, which we have used for many years, continued to service our warehouse in 9intervale, and last month only ?10,000 worth of the food stored there had een destroyed y pest damage. /ven though the price charged y *ly!Away is considera ly lower, our est means of saving money is to return to 1u((off +ompany for all our pest!control services.& ############### "he following appeared in a proposal from the economic minister of the country of .araterra. &In order to strengthen its lagging economy, last year the government of the near y country of 1ellegea egan an advertising campaign to promote ecologically sound tourism EecotourismF. "his year, the num er of foreign visitors arriving at 1ellegea's main airport dou led, and per capita income in 1ellegea increased y ten percent. "o provide more income for the population of .araterra and also preserve the natural environment of our tiny country, we too should egin to promote ecotourism. "o ensure that our advertising campaign is successful, we should hire the current director of 1ellegea's National "ourism 7ffice as a consultant for the campaign.& ############### "he following appeared as part of a usiness plan developed y the manager of the %ialto "heater. &3espite its downtown location, the %ialto 8ovie "heater, a local institution for five decades, must ma$e ig changes or close its doors forever. It should follow the e-ample of the new Ape"heater in the mall outside of town. 9hen the Ape- opened last year, it featured a video arcade, plush carpeting and seats, and a state!of!the!art sound system. *urthermore, in a recent survey, over A@ percent of respondents reported that the high price of newly released movies prevents them from going to the movies more than five times per year. "hus, if the %ialto intends to hold on to its share of a decreasing pool of moviegoers, it must offer the same features as Ape-.&

############### "he following is a recommendation from the usiness manager of 8onarch 1oo$s. &8onarch 1oo$s should open a cafJ in its store to attract more customers and etter compete with %egal 1oo$s, which recently opened a cafJ. 8onarch, which has een in usiness at the same location for more than twenty years, has a large customer following ecause it is $nown for its wide selection of oo$s on all su 5ects. 7pening the cafJ would clearly attract more customers. "he cafJ would re)uire relatively little space. 4pace could e made for the cafJ y discontinuing the children's oo$ section, which will li$ely ecome less popular given that the last national census indicated a significant decline in the percent of the population who are under age ten.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in a wildlife 5ournal. &Arctic deer live on islands in +anada's arctic region. "hey search for food y moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. "heir ha itat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, allowing the deer to travel over it. ,nfortunately, according to reports from local hunters, the deer populations are declining. 4ince these reports coincide with recent glo al warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the decline in arctic deer populations is the result of deer eing una le to follow their age!old migration patterns across the fro(en sea.& ############### Although lac$ ears are common in the eastern +anadian province of Ca rador, gri((ly ears # often similar in color, ut much larger # were elieved to e-ist only in the western provinces. 3espite a nineteenth!century e-plorer's account of having startled and narrowly escaped from a gri((ly ear deep in the woods in Ca rador, modern scientists find no physical evidence that gri((ly ears have ever lived in Ca rador. 1ut recent research into the language and legends of the Innu, a people who have lived in Ca rador for thousands of years, reveals that their language has words for two different $inds of ears, and their ancient legends attri ute different characteristics to the two $inds of ears. "herefore, there pro a ly were gri((ly ears in Ca rador, and the e-plorer's account pro a ly accurately identified the ear. ############### 4cientists studying historical weather patterns have discovered that in the mid!si-th century, /arth suddenly ecame significantly cooler. Although few historical records survive from that time, some accounts found oth in Asia and /urope mention a dimming of the sun and e-tremely cold temperatures. /ither a huge volcanic eruption or a large meteorite colliding with /arth could have created a large dust cloud throughout /arth's atmosphere that would have een capa le of loc$ing enough sunlight to lower glo al temperatures significantly. A large meteorite collision, however, would pro a ly create a sudden right flash of light, and no e-tant historical records of the time mention such a flash. 4ome surviving Asian historical records of the time, however, mention a loud oom that would e consistent with a volcanic eruption. "herefore, the cooling was pro a ly caused y a volcanic eruption.

############### "he following appeared in a newspaper article pu lished in the country of +orpora. &"wenty years ago, one half of all citi(ens in +orpora met the standards for ade)uate physical fitness as then defined y the national advisory oard on physical fitness. "oday, the oard says that only one )uarter of all citi(ens are ade)uately fit and suggests that spending too much time using computers may e the reason. 1ut since overall fitness levels are highest in regions of +orpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest, it is clear that using computers has not made citi(ens less physically fit. Instead, as shown y this year's unusually low e-penditures on fitness!related products and services, the recent decline in the economy is most li$ely the cause, and fitness levels will improve when the economy does.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a newsletter on health issues. &*or the past decade, most health e-perts have advised teenagers to avoid eating greasy foods in order to prevent acne and related s$in conditions, ut the num er of teenagers who sought medical help for these s$in pro lems has actually risen over the same period. In a recent study, teenagers who avoided greasy foods for a month reported appro-imately as many out rea$s of acne and related s$in conditions as did those who ate an average of two servings of greasy food per day. 4uch data indicate that eating greasy foods is unli$ely to e a cause of acne and related s$in conditions. "herefore, health e-perts should no longer recommend that people avoid such foods.& ############### *rom a draft te-t oo$ manuscript su mitted to a pu lisher. &As /arth was eing formed out of the collision of space roc$s, the heat from those collisions and from the increasing gravitational energy of the planet made the entire planet molten, even the surface. Any water present would have evaporated and gone off into space. As the planet approached its current si(e, however, its gravitation ecame strong enough to hold gases and water vapor around it as an atmosphere. 1ecause comets are largely ice made up of fro(en water and gases, a comet stri$ing /arth then would have vapori(ed. "he resulting water vapor would have een retained in the atmosphere, eventually falling as rain on the cooled and solidified surface of /arth. "herefore, the water in /arth's oceans must have originated from comets.& ############### "he following appeared in a medical newsletter. &3octors have long suspected that secondary infections may $eep some patients from healing )uic$ly after severe muscle strain. "his hypothesis has now een proved y preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients. "he first group of patients, all eing treated for muscle in5uries y 3r. Newland, a doctor who speciali(es in sports medicine, too$ anti iotics regularly throughout their treatment. "heir recuperation time was, on average, L0 percent )uic$er than typically e-pected. .atients in the second group, all eing treated y 3r. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients elieved they were ta$ing anti iotics.

"heir average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. "herefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would e well advised to ta$e anti iotics as part of their treatment. & ############### "he following appeared in a memo to the human resources manager at 1ao o Inc., a large architectural firm. &4everal well!$nown, retired architects were interviewed in Architecture "oday a out changes in the field. 7nly one had earned a college degree in architecture. All others had come into the field at an early age y serving apprenticeships that re)uired them to wor$ under the direct supervision of an e-perienced architect. 4everal of the colleges that we recruit from report that many promising architecture students leave school early in their undergraduate career. "herefore, ecause finding talented architecture graduates is ecoming more difficult, 1ao o Inc. should start an aggressive apprenticeship program and hire students who e-press an interest in architecture directly out of high school rather than wait for them to get out of college.& ############### "hirteen years ago, researchers studied a group of 2@ infants who showed signs of mild distress when e-posed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an un$nown voice. "hey discovered that these infants were more li$ely than other infants to have een conceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production of melatonin # a hormone $nown to affect some rain functions # would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow!up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children # now teenagers # who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. +learly, increased levels of melatonin efore irth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter on dental health. &A recent research study reported the e-perience of dentists whose patients had, over a period of five years, regularly used *lu- 3ental *loss as part of their dental hygiene routine. "he report indicates that these dentists had @0 percent fewer cases of gum disease than did dentists whose patients did not use *lu- regularly. In addition, most of the *lu- users who were surveyed y their dentists agreed that *lu-'s mint flavor would encourage people to floss more often. "hus, even though *lu- may cost more than other rands of floss, it is clearly a worthwhile investment for those who want to e assured of healthy teeth and gums.& ############### "he following appeared in a Cetter to the /ditor of the 4hady <illage newspaper. &+ommuters are complaining that the rush hour traffic on 1lue ;ighway etween 4hady <illage and 1right +ity has dou led their commuting time. 4ome commuters have as$ed that an additional traffic lane e uilt, ut the recent creation of such a lane on near y 6reen ;ighway apparently attracted more commuters, 5udging from the fact that rush!hour traffic 5ams actually increased there this past winter. "o reduce rush!hour traffic on 1lue ;ighway, a icycle lane

should e added instead of a traffic lane. "his approach will succeed ecause many citi(ens of 4hady <illage are avid icyclists> B@ percent of respondents to a recent )uestionnaire distri uted there said they would li$e to icycle more hours per wee$ than they currently do.& ############### +ollectors pri(e the ancient life!si(e clay statues of human figures made on :ali Island ut have long wondered how the :alinese artists were a le to depict odies with such realistic precision. 4ince archeologists have recently discovered molds of human heads and hands on :ali, we can now conclude that the ancient :alinese artists used molds of actual odies, not sculpting tools and techni)ues, to create these statues. "his discovery e-plains why :alinese miniature statues were a stract and entirely different in style0 molds could only e used for life!si(e sculptures. It also e-plains why few ancient :alinese sculpting tools have een found. In light of this development, collectors should e-pect the life!si(e sculptures to decrease in value and the miniatures to increase in value. ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter on nutrition and health. &Although the multimineral Nor a pill was designed as a simple dietary supplement, a study of first!time ulcer patients who too$ Nor a suggests that Nor a actually helps prevent ulcers. "he study showed that only 2@ percent of those ulcer patients who too$ Nor a under a doctor's direction developed new ulcers, compared to a B@ percent recurrence rate among ulcer patients who did not ta$e Nor a. +learly, then, Nor a will e highly effective in preventing recurrent ulcers and if health e-perts inform the general pu lic of this fact, many first!time ulcers can e prevented as well.& ############### "he following appeared in an article from a popular newsmaga(ine. &In 1AAA a stone was unearthed in northern 9isconsin with an inscription in an old 4candinavian alpha et and earing the date 13I2. 4candinavians were not, however, e-ploring or emigrating to northern 9isconsin in the fourteenth century. %ecent analysis proves, in fact, that the stone had een uried in the spot where it was found for no more than 100 years. 8oreover, the community near the discovery site was home to a group of people who had formed a clu to study medieval 4candinavian culture # a period that includes the fourteenth century. "he stone, therefore, is not a genuine artifact of medieval 4candinavian culture inscri ed in the fourteenth century ut most li$ely a hoa- perpetrated y the group.& ############### "he following appeared in an article in the health section of a newspaper. &According to the availa le medical records, the si- worst worldwide flu epidemics during the past 300 years occurred in 1B29, 1A30, 191A, 19@B, 19IA, and 19BB. "hese were all years with heavy sunspot activity # that is, years when the /arth received significantly more solar energy than in normal years. .eople at particular ris$ for the flu should therefore avoid prolonged e-posure to the 4un.&

############### "he following appeared in the health section of 6lenntown's local newspaper. &4everal national medical studies suggest that older people who have pets tend to en5oy etter health than those who do not have pets0 those who have pets have lower rates of high lood pressure and arthritis. It seems clear that having to care for an animal promotes good health for the older person. "herefore, 6lenntown should esta lish a program to give a small pet such as a dog or cat to all of its citi(ens who are over the age of I@. "his will help to insure that our senior citi(ens en5oy good health and have fewer medical ills.& ##############! "he following appeared in a report y the 4chool 3istrict of /yleria. &Nationally, the average ratio of computers to students in $indergarten through grade 12 E:!12F is 10@. /ducators indicate that this is very good ratio. "his means that across the country, all students have access to and can use computers daily in their classrooms. In /yleria's :!12 schools, the ratio of computers to students is 10B. "his num er is sufficient to ensure that all of /yleria's students, y the time they graduate from high school, will e fully proficient in the use of computer technology. "hus, there is no reason to spend any of the schools' udget on computers or other technology in the ne-t few years.& ##############! "he "reasury has once again introduced a dollar coin, the .ine "ree dollar. Neither the .residential dollar coin, introduced 11 years ago, nor the /agle dollar coin, introduced 3 years ago, remained in circulation long0 people simply preferred spending paper dollars. ;owever, a survey conducted soon after its release indicates that the .ine "ree dollar is far more appealing than other dollar coins0 BI percent of respondents own the coin> I2 percent of those owning multiple coins consider it so attractive that they are still saving rather than spending the most recent coin to come into their possession. 4ince the .ine "ree coin promises to ecome the dollar currency of choice, the "reasury is correct to egin saving money y dramatically reducing the costly printing of paper dollars. ############### 9hen 4tanley .ar$ first opened, it was the largest, most heavily used par$ in town. It is still the largest par$, ut it is no longer heavily used. <ideo cameras mounted in the par$'s par$ing lots last month revealed the par$'s drop in popularity0 the recordings showed an average of only @0 cars per day. In contrast, tiny +arlton .ar$ in the heart of the usiness district is visited y more than 1@0 people on a typical wee$day. An o vious difference is that +arlton .ar$, unli$e 4tanley .ar$, provides ample seating. "hus, if 4tanley .ar$ is ever to e as popular with our citi(ens as is +arlton .ar$, the town will o viously need to provide more enches, there y converting some of the unused open areas into spaces suita le for sociali(ing. ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the 3ean of the +ollege of /ducation at 7mni 4tate ,niversity.

&7nly seven of our state's high schools offer even one course in Catin, ut over A0 percent of the graduates who study Catin at those seven schools enroll in college. *urthermore, a recent study shows that students who have mastered Catin perform much etter in logic and critical thin$ing. "hus, in order to increase the percentage of our high school students who graduate from college as well as to ensure that they receive a etter education in critical thin$ing, 7mni 4tate ,niversity should egin an intensive program to prepare our future teachers to teach high school Catin.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the president of a chain of cheese stores located throughout the ,nited 4tates. &*or many years all the stores in our chain have stoc$ed a wide variety of oth domestic and imported cheeses. Cast year, however, the five est!selling cheeses at our newest store were all domestic cheddar cheeses from 9isconsin. *urthermore, a recent survey y +heeses of the 9orld maga(ine indicates an increasing preference for domestic cheeses among its su scri ers. 4ince our company can reduce e-penses y limiting inventory, the est way to improve profits in all of our stores is to discontinue stoc$ing many of our varieties of imported cheese and concentrate primarily on domestic cheeses.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter from a firm providing investment advice to a client. &;omes in the northeastern ,nited 4tates, where winters are typically cold, have traditionally used oil as their ma5or fuel for heating. Cast year that region e-perienced 90 days with elow! average temperatures, and climate forecasters at 9aymarsh ,niversity predict that this weather pattern will continue for several more years. *urthermore, many new homes have een uilt in this region during the past year. 1ecause of these developments, we predict an increased demand for heating oil and recommend investment in +onsolidated Industries, one of whose ma5or usiness operations is the retail sale of home heating oil.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a newspaper serving the villages of +astorville and .ollu-ton. &1oth the villages of +astorville and .ollu-ton have e-perienced sharp declines in the num ers of residents who pay property ta-es. "o save money and improve service, the two villages recently merged their once separate gar age collection departments into a single department located in +astorville, and the new department has reported few complaints a out its service. Cast year the li rary in .ollu-ton had 20 percent fewer users than during the previous year. It follows that we should now further economi(e and improve service, as we did with gar age collection, y closing the li rary in .ollu-ton and using the li rary in +astorville to serve oth villages.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a udget planner for the +ity of 6randview.

&"o avoid a udget deficit ne-t year, the +ity of 6randview must eliminate its funding for the 6randview 4ymphony. 7ur citi(ens are well aware of the fact that while the 6randview 4ymphony 7rchestra was struggling to succeed, our city government promised annual funding to help support its programs. Cast year, however, private contri utions to the 4ymphony increased y 200 percent, and attendance at the 4ymphony's concerts!in!the!par$ series dou led. "he 4ymphony has also announced an increase in tic$et prices for ne-t year. 4uch developments indicate that the 4ymphony can now succeed without funding from city government and we can eliminate that e-pense from ne-t year's udget. "his action will surely prevent a udget deficit.& ############### Hellow!legged frogs were once common in high!altitude la$es in the 4ierra Nevada mountains, ut they have ecome increasingly rare. "rout feed on tadpoles and young frogs. *ew la$es in the 4ierra Nevada had any trout in them until a hundred years ago. At that time, many la$es were stoc$ed with trout for recreational fishing, and now trout are common in virtually all odies of water in the 4ierra Nevada. %esearchers removed the trout from one la$e, and the frog population soon )uadrupled. 4ince frogs are capa le of moving several miles over land, removing trout from 5ust a few la$es is clearly the way to restore the frog population to its former levels. ############### 4tudies show that in B0 percent of traffic accidents, at least one driver involved is less than 10 miles from home when the accident occurs. "his statistic indicates that drivers have a tendency to drive incautiously when they are close to home, pro a ly ecause familiar surroundings give them a false sense of security. "hus, the places where people feel safest are the places where they are in fact at greatest ris$ of serious in5ury. ############### +opper occurs in nature mi-ed with other minerals and valua le metals in ore, and the proportion of copper in the ore can vary considera ly. ,ntil fairly recently, the only way to e-tract pure copper from ore was y using a process that re)uires large amounts of electric energy, especially if the proportion of copper in the ore is low. New copper!e-tracting technologies can use up to L0 percent less electricity than the older method to process the same amount of raw ore, especially when the proportion of copper in the ore is high. "herefore, we can e-pect the amount of electricity used y the copper!e-traction industry to decline significantly. ############### In measuring electrical activity in different parts of the rain, researchers found that people who descri e themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal lo e of their rains than do other people. "herefore, a medication for stimulating the left prefrontal lo e of the rain would e an effective treatment for clinical depression. ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a manager of a car dealership. &"en years ago, long!term car leasing ecame availa le in our country of 8ohilia as an alternative to outright car ownership, and leasing has steadily risen in popularity. *or each of the

last five years, the num er of people leasing new cars has surpassed the num er uying new cars. "he average age of cars driven in 8ohilia is si- years> hence, if new car leases again outnum er purchases this year, it is li$ely that the ma5ority of drivers will e driving leased, not individually owned, cars. "herefore, we should change the focus of our usiness from selling cars to leasing them.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter a out education policy. '"he average annual earnings of high school dropouts are significantly less than the average annual earnings of high school graduates. "o address this pro lem, the state governor has proposed that the state should esta lish free vocational training programs for high school dropouts. 1ut the availa ility of such programs would pro a ly encourage some students who would otherwise have graduated to drop out in order to pursue vocational training. ;ence the proposed programs would lower, not raise, the average earning potential of young people. "herefore, the state should not esta lish the vocational training programs ut should instead focus on improving academic programs in our high schools.' ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter a out health. &"he proportion of children in the ,nited 4tates who are overweight is greater now than ever efore. 7 esity rates among children have een increasing since the 19B0's and, during that same time period, the proportion of children living in su ur s has increased. 9hereas children in rural areas tend to have outdoor active chores and children in cities often wal$ to school or other places they need to go, children in su ur s are typically driven everywhere. "hus the increase in childhood o esity is pro a ly due mainly to the su ur ani(ation of America and the associated decrease in the opportunities children have for e-ercise.& ############### "he following appeared as part of an article in a health and eauty maga(ine. &A group of volunteers participated in a study of consumer responses to the new Cu-ess face cream. /very morning for a month, they washed their faces with mild soap and then applied Cu-ess. At the end of that month, most volunteers reported a mar$ed improvement in the way their s$in loo$ed and felt. "hus it appears that Cu-ess is truly effective in improving the condition of facial s$in.& ############### "he cities of /ast 4acunda and 9est 4acunda are in an earth)ua$e!prone area. 4ince 19A@ oth cities have had stringent uilding codes re)uiring all new uildings to have specific features designed to prevent damage in an earth)ua$e. 1uildings uilt efore 19A@ are e-empt from the codes, ut many uilding owners have modified their uildings to ma$e them conform to the 19A@ codes. Cast year a ma5or earth)ua$e hit the area, and many people lost their homes. "he num er of people who were left homeless was much higher in /ast 4acunda than in 9est

4acunda, however, so we can conclude that uilding owners in /ast 4acunda were less li$ely to modify their uildings so as to ring them up to the 19A@ code standards. ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of an archaeological maga(ine. &Archaeologists e-cavated a cave that had een inha ited y prehistoric people for thousands of years. "hese people hunted wild animals, many of whose ones were found at levels corresponding to different times of ha itation. 8ost of the ones at the oldest levels, over L0,000 years old, were from a deer species whose modern!day descendants are $nown to prefer woodland ha itats, whereas most of the ones at more recent levels, dating from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, were from a ga(elle species whose modern!day descendants are $nown to prefer grasslands. 9e can thus conclude that the climate of the area changed dramatically etween L0,000 and 30,000 years ago, causing the terrain to change from woodland to grassland.& ############### "he following appeared in a maga(ine for the truc$ing industry. &"he Conghaul truc$ing company was concerned that its annual accident rate Ethe num er of accidents per mile drivenF was too high. It granted a significant pay increase to its drivers and increased its training standards. It also put strict limits on the num er of hours per wee$ each driver could drive. "he following year, its truc$s were involved in half the num er of accidents as efore the changes were implemented. A survey of other truc$ing companies found that the highest!paid drivers were the least li$ely to have had an accident. "herefore, truc$ing companies wishing to reduce their accident rate can do so simply y raising their drivers' pay and limiting the overall num er of hours they drive.& ############### "he following appeared as an editorial in a health maga(ine. &+lormium @ is an odorless, tasteless, and generally harmless industrial y!product that can enter the water supply. A preliminary study has lin$ed coo$ing with water containing clormium @ to an increased incidence of allergies and s$in rashes. "ests of the drin$ing water in several areas have revealed the presence of clormium @. Although it is possi le to remove clormium @ from water, the costs of routine testing and purification are higher than many communities can afford. "herefore, in order to prevent allergies and s$in rashes, communities that cannot afford to rid their drin$ing water of clormium @ should replace drin$ing fountains in pu lic uildings, such as schools and li raries, with ottled!water coolers.& ############### Allergies are an overreaction of the immune system to certain stimuli. 7ne view is that allergies can develop as the result of childhood e-posure to certain irritants, such as dust or animal dander, while the immune system is not yet mature. Another view is that e-posure to particular acteria early in childhood actually triggers the proper development of the immune system, and that limiting e-posure to these acteria through e-cessive hygiene can cause children's immune systems to overreact to certain irritants later on. A new study supports the second view0 children

who are washed especially fre)uently and whose parents clean their homes especially fre)uently are more li$ely to develop allergies than are other children. 4o in order to reduce the incidence of allergies in children and adults, parents should not limit children's e-posure to irritants or acteria. ############### "he following appeared in a letter to an editor. &In many countries, wood is the primary fuel used for heating and coo$ing, ut wood smo$e can cause respiratory and eye pro lems, and e-tensive use of wood causes deforestation, a ma5or environmental pro lem. In contrast, charcoal, made y partially urning wood in a controlled process, is a fuel that creates less smo$e than wood does. 8oreover, although charcoal costs slightly more than wood, less charcoal is needed to produce the same amount of heat. "herefore, people who use wood as their primary fuel can, without e-periencing economic hardship, switch to charcoal and can there y improve their health and preserve the environment.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the usiness manager of 8edicine, Inc., a local drugstore. &8ost usiness analysts for the drugstore industry have stated that even when a nation's economy is wea$, drugstores' profits are unli$ely to decline apprecia ly. 9hile consumers might put off some $inds of purchases when the economy is slow, prescription and over!the!counter drug purchases are dictated y consumers' health needs, which are independent of the economy. "herefore, 8edicine Inc. is li$ely to continue to have increasing profits and should plan to open an additional drugstore ne-t year.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo written y the head of the 6orham 4chool. &7ur school cafeteria should ma$e changes in the lunches that it serves in order to improve the health of our students. 4everal teachers and I have o served that students who eat these meals tend to eat the main course and the dessert, ut seldom finish the vegeta le portion. "his pattern means that students are missing the vital nutritional enefits of fruits and vegeta les, which are typically rich in vitamins and minerals. "herefore, the school cafeteria should serve larger fruit and vegeta le portions along with smaller main course and dessert portions. "his change will e effective ecause, according to research conducted at the %ose +hildren's ;ospital, children eat the same amount of food served to them # a out @@ percent, on average # no matter what the main course is.& ############### "he following appeared in the letter to an editor of a 8yrian newspaper. &,nder 6overnor 9inslow's leadership over the past four years, 8yria has en5oyed unprecedented prosperity. Average wage increases this year are higher than they have een at any

time since the 19B0's, the num er of people who report eing unemployed has decreased y 10 percent, and construction of new homes is up y one third. In contrast, over the past four years 6overnor 9inslow's opponent, 8r. ;omer, has een mayor of a city in which only a small num er of new usinesses have opened. If 8yrians want another four years li$e the past four years, they should reelect 6overnor 9inslow.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a mem er of the +lar$ +ity 4chool 1oard. &8ason /lementary 4chool is faced with a shortage of classroom space. At the same time, parents in our district are increasingly e-pressing the desire to see improvements in their children's reading a ilities. "herefore, we should reduce the num er of physical education classes at 8ason /lementary and convert part of the gymnasium to class!room space. "he school will gain the additional space for classrooms without the cost of e-tending the uilding and can use the time that students would have spent in physical education classes to provide more reading instruction. "his plan will lead to improvements in students' reading s$ills.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo to managers of +hristine's, a chain of craft stores. &4everal ma5or newspapers have recently run articles noting an increased interest in pottery. "he num er of potters in this country has risen y eighteen percent in the past five years, and pottery is particularly gaining popularity on college campuses. In order to ta$e advantage of these trends, +hristine's should immediately egin carrying a larger volume of pottery supplies. 4ince several of our stores have recently e-perienced a decrease in sales of painting supplies, all store managers should reallocate shelf space from the painting area for the display of pottery. 4tores should display posters showing pottery that is designed to appeal to college!age individuals. "hese actions will undou tedly increase our profits dramatically.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter a out health pu lished in the country of 4auria. &According to 4auria's leading nutritional e-perts, a diet high in comple- car ohydrates, and low in fat is optimal for good health and longevity. 1ecause this was the diet of the people who lived in ancient 4auria, one would e-pect them to have had long and healthy lives. Het the mummified remains of 4auria's ruling classes from two to three thousand years ago show the e-istence of many medical pro lems among the ancient 4aurians, including dental pro lems, elevated lood pressure, o esity, heart disease, and early mortality. +learly, the diet of the ancient 4aurians was responsi le for these pro lems. "he high incidence of high lood pressure, o esity, and heart disease in 4auria today even among those who have tried low!fat, high!car ohydrate diets further proves that 4auria's leading nutritional e-perts are wrong.& ############### "he following appeared in a newspaper pu lished in the state of +elera.

&4peed limits on our state's highways should e eliminated in order to increase our state's prosperity. 1ecause greater speed means more efficient travel, commercial deliveries will e faster, increasing usiness profits. /limination of speed limits will also ma$e driving more attractive to motorists, so that more people will use the highways, providing more highway toll revenues for the state. At the same time, safety on our highways will not e affected0 daytime speed limits were eliminated last year in the western states of our country, and no significant increase in the num er of accidents in these states has een reported.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial on health pro lems in the country of +orpora. &4ome pharmacies now feature ultrasound machines that screen for an elevated ris$ of stro$e. *or a fee, a technician presses a pro e against the nec$ to determine whether any pla)ue has thic$ened the walls of the main artery leading to the rain. %esearchers have shown that a thic$ening of artery walls is associated with elevated stro$e ris$, and such scans typically find that anywhere from @ to 20 percent of clients have detecta le pla)ue. All pharmacies should offer this service, ecause early detection of increased ris$ for stro$e will encourage clients to consult with their doctors and ma$e important life!style changes to reduce their ris$ of having a stro$e. "his in turn will cause a decrease in overall medical costs in +orpora.& ############### "he following appeared in an article in 4upplements "oday. &3ieticians have long $nown that professional athletes who eat a lot of nuts have higher levels of endurance than those who do not. %esearchers have recently discovered that the particular com ination of vitamin N and fi er found in some nuts provides a oost for those who participate in strenuous physical activities daily. 1oth vitamin N and fi er supplements are easily synthesi(ed and widely availa le. As a result, all those who participate in athletic activities will e a le to increase their endurance and win more games y ta$ing vitamin N along with a fi er supplement.& ############### "he following is a recommendation from the human resources department at "echforce +omputer +ompany. &8any wor$ing parents report that pro lems related to their childcare arrangements are a ma5or reason for a senteeism from their 5o s. 1ridgewell +orporation, a tele!communications company, implemented an on!site childcare program and after one year, the company reported that unscheduled a sences had declined y 2@ percent. 4ince "echforce has had an increase in unscheduled employee a sences over the past year, we should therefore implement our own on! site childcare program. "he program will undou tedly reduce our unscheduled employee a sences, resulting in significantly increased productivity.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a vice president of a large, highly diversified company.

&"en years ago our company had two new regional office uildings uilt in two different regions. "he uildings were erected y two different construction companies # Alpha and Neta. /ven though the two uildings had virtually identical floor plans, the uilding constructed y Neta cost 30 percent more to uild, and its e-penses for maintenance last year were twice those of the uilding constructed y Alpha. *urthermore, the energy consumption of the Neta uilding has een higher than that of the Alpha uilding every year since its construction. 4uch data, plus the fact that Alpha has a sta le wor$force with little employee turnover, indicate that we should use Alpha +onstruction +ompany, rather than Neta, for all future uilding pro5ects.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the president of 1ower 1uilders, a company that constructs new homes. &A nationwide survey reveals that the two most desired home features are a athroom with a whirlpool tu and a large $itchen. ;omes in a near y development uilt y our competitor, 3omus +onstruction, have whirlpool tu s and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the average. "o increase our sales and profits, we should include whirlpool tu s and larger $itchens as standard features in all our new homes. 4ince our recent uyers have voiced no complaints a out small yards, we can also increase profits y decreasing the si(e of our yards.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from a udget planner in 4ophia +ounty. &+ensus data indicate that the num er of retired couples without children who are moving into 4ophia +ounty is steadily rising> private schools in our county report su stantial increases in enrollment> and a statewide survey of parents shows that over 10 percent now support the idea of home schooling instead of pu lic schooling funded y the county government. 4uch demographic trends suggest that our county will not have to construct new school uildings and that we can therefore decrease the udget for county!funded pu lic schools.& ############### "he following appeared in a maga(ine focusing on health and fitness. &A recent study of several nutritional supplements showed that su 5ects who too$ a daily pill containing luceen had significantly etter vision of distant o 5ects than su 5ects in the study who too$ other nutritional supplements. Cuceen appears naturally in a tasty fruit that grows on the island of 1onopia, and very few inha itants of that island wear eyeglasses or other corrective lenses. 4uch evidence suggests that people who develop vision pro lems should ta$e regular luceen supplements.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the manager of television station :I+:. &A nationwide survey reveals that a si(ea le ma5ority of men would li$e to see additional sports programs on television. After television station 9A+: increased its sports roadcasts, its share

of the television audience in its viewing area almost dou led. "o gain a larger audience share in our area, and thus increase company profits, :I+: should also revise its roadcast schedule to include more sports coverage.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the director of a large group of hospitals. &In a la oratory study of li)uid anti acterial hand soaps, a concentrated solution of Nadasept $illed L0 percent more acteria than the li)uid hand soaps currently used in our hospitals. 3uring a su se)uent test of Nadasept at our hospital in 4aluda, that hospital reported significantly fewer cases of patient infection than did any of the other hospitals in our group. "herefore, to prevent serious patient infections, we should supply Nadasept at all hand washing stations throughout our hospital system.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the economic minister of the small country .aucia. &,sing a newly developed variety of seed, farmers in our neigh oring country A undia produced A0 percent more rice last year than in any previous year. "o increase the income of farmers in our own country, we should encourage them to cultivate this new variety of rice rather than some of their traditional crops. 4uch high yields of rice will also improve our country's alance of trade y ena ling us to egin e-porting it.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the chief operating officer of the .resto 8anufacturing +ompany. &4ince orders for our ma5or product increased y over 200 percent last )uarter, we should promptly e-pand production y uilding a new manufacturing plant in 4ummit +ity. 4ummit +ity is the ideal location for the new plant ecause it has low property ta-es, e-tensive loc$s of land availa le for immediate purchase, and a large num er of residents who are not currently employed.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the president of a company that ma$es rea$fast cereals. &In a recent study, su 5ects who ate soy eans at least five times per wee$ had significantly lower cholesterol levels than su 5ects who ate no soy products. 1y fortifying our 9heat!7 cereal with soy protein, we can increase sales y appealing to additional consumers who are concerned a out their health. "his new version of 9heat!7 should increase company profits and, at the same time, improve the health of our customers.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter from the mayor of "udor +ity.

&After a ma5or airline chose Hor$ville as its regional flight hu , the num er of usinesses in that city almost dou led and local ta- revenue increased y @0 percent. In addition, as travel to Hor$ville ecame easier, most respondents to a survey of the country's top e-ecutives identified Hor$ville as a desira le place to transact usiness. "o secure efficient transportation for "udor +ity and stimulate our local economy, we should uild a new airport, li$e the one in Hor$ville, that is suita le for a regional flight hu .& ############### 1lue +ity ;ighway had always een notorious for its tight curves and poor roadway visi ility, and the accident rate there was generally very high. Cast year the highway was redesigned to roaden the curves and improve roadway visi ility. 3rivers report that they now feel much safer driving on the highway and that the redesign has een a ig improvement. 1ut the num er of accidents on the highway has not een significantly lower in the si- months since the redesign than it was in the si- months efore the redesign. "herefore, the redesign clearly did not improve the curves and roadway visi ility enough to ma$e a difference. ############### 7ne $ind of rain!scanning device is used y doctors to monitor normal as well as a normal activity in a patient's rain. "he device provides precise measurements of lood flow in the rain, a $nown indicator of how the rain is wor$ing. ,nfortunately, the device re)uires patients to remain completely still with their heads in the scanning machine, which ma$es a very loud noise. ,nder these uncomforta le conditions, it is dou tful that doctors can get accurate measurements. A new head!mounted device that measures eye movements rather than lood flow and allows patients to move around will undou tedly provide etter rain measurements. "hus, the new head!mounted device should replace the older device at all hospitals and research institutions. ############### "he following appeared in a health newsletter. &According to a recent study, people with many social ties report catching colds less often than do people with few social ties. +onse)uently, researchers conclude that having an active social life pro a ly helps strengthen the immune system. "he researchers note that catching a cold # one of a family of highly contagious viruses # gives the cold!sufferer temporary immunity to that virus in the future, ut not to the many other related viruses. 8erely eing e-posed to a new cold virus, however, is not enough for a person to catch a cold, since a strong immune system can successfully fight off some new viruses. "hus, in order to prevent catching a cold, people should strengthen their immune systems y ecoming more active socially.& ############### "he following editorial appeared in a newspaper in the country of 4olaria. &"he /liot <alley region was primarily agricultural twenty years ago. In the past twenty years, however, many computer!chip manufacturers have opened factories there. A recent study found that water pollution in the region was worse than in any other region in the country. 8oreover, the computer!chip factories, which use large )uantities of water to manufacture the chips, are pro a ly responsi le for the low levels of water in the region's la$es and reservoirs. "herefore, if

the region's computer!chip ma$ers had limits placed on the amount of water they could use, water )uality would improve.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in the 4eatown newspaper. &4eatown has a large port e-clusively for fishing oats, whose owners pay fees for the up$eep of the doc$s and for facilities for cleaning engines and repairing nets. In recent years, declining fish populations have decreased fishing revenue and forced many owners to stop fishing altogether. As a result, the port has a high vacancy rate and port managers are considering allowing pleasure oats, including cruise ships and other large vessels, to use the port in order to increase revenue. 1ut allowing pleasure oats into the port would e a mista$e, ecause the fishing oats would e forced out of the port. 9e should preserve the port for the fishing fleet, which, unli$e pleasure oats, contri utes to the prosperity of 4eatown.& ############### "he following appeared in a 1renton newspaper. &"he 1renton power plant draws water from 4cott's %iver for its cooling system and releases the warmed water ac$ into the river. "he town council recommends that the plant install a more efficient cooling system that uses less water, claiming it will e more environmentally sound. ;owever, in ,ptown, where the new system is used, a study found that the comple- networ$ of pipes in the new system tends to accumulate algae. "he uild up of algae can e avoided y scru ing the pipes, which is costly, or y adding an her icide to the water in the pipes to prevent algae accumulation. 1ut water containing the her icide cannot e released ac$ into the river and it is $nown that low water levels can harm river ecosystems accustomed to higher levels. "herefore, 1renton power plant should continue to use the old cooling system e-clusively.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the 8aple +ity newspaper. &"wenty years ago .ine +ity esta lished strict laws designed to limit the num er of new uildings that could e constructed in the city. 4ince that time the average housing prices in .ine +ity have increased considera ly. +hestnut +ity, which is a out the same si(e as .ine +ity, has over the past twenty years e-perienced an increase in average housing prices similar to .ine +ity, ut +hestnut +ity never esta lished any laws that limit new uilding construction. 4o it is clear that laws limiting new construction have no effect on average housing prices. 4o if 8aple +ity were to esta lish strict laws that limit new uilding construction, these laws will have no effect on average housing prices.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the .rincipal of 4herwood =unior ;igh 4chool. &It appears that the lighting in 4herwood ;igh's classrooms, which have large windows ut minimal overhead light sources, is impairing student academic performance and teacher morale.

%ecords show that during 3ecem er and =anuary, the two months with the fewest hours of daylight, attendance rates fall, average daily class participation drops, and grades decline. "eacher resignations are also highest during these months. According to a study of "undra <ocational 4chool, which e-periences entire seasons with little daylight, students' grade point averages increased when 3ay 6low light ul s, which mimic sunlight, were installed in classrooms. "his study suggests that 4herwood can improve students' academic performance and teachers' morale y using 3ay 6low light ul s in winter.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of mar$eting at 3ura!4oc$, Inc. &A recent study of 3ura!4oc$ wearers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented '/ndure' manufacturing process, which ensures that our soc$s are strong enough to last for two years. 3ura!4oc$ has always advertised its use of the '/ndure' process, ut the new study shows that the average 3ura!4oc$ customer actually purchases new 3ura!4oc$s every three months. *urthermore, 3ura!4oc$ customers surveyed in our largest mar$et, northeastern ,nited 4tates cities, say that they most value 3ura!4oc$'s stylish appearance and availa ility in many colors. "hese findings suggest that 3ura!4oc$ can increase its profits y discontinuing its use of the '/ndure' manufacturing process.& ############### "he following proposal was raised at a meeting of the *ran$lin +ity +ouncil. &*ran$lin Airport, which is on a ay, is notorious for flight delays. "he airport management wants to uild new runways to increase capacity ut can only do so y filling in 900 acres of the ay. "he 1ay +oalition organi(ation o 5ects that filling in the ay will disrupt tidal patterns and harm wildlife. 1ut the airport says that if it is permitted to uild its new runways, it will fund the restoration of 1,000 acres of wetlands in areas of the ay that have previously een damaged y industriali(ation. "his plan should e adopted, for it is necessary to reduce the flight delays, and the wetlands restoration part of the plan ensures that the ay's environment will actually e helped rather than hurt.& ############### "he following was pu lished y a consumer protection agency. &"hree years ago, 4o!Cow launched a nationwide ad campaign, focusing heavily on sunny regions and distri uting free sunglasses there. 1ut although 4o!Cow sunglasses cost less than higher!priced rands, they loc$ a smaller proportion of the 4un's rays, including the type of rays $nown to damage the eyes even when the person wearing the sunglasses feels no discomfort. A recent study suggests that 4o!Cow sunglasses can actually increase the ris$ of damage to people's eyes y creating a false sense of security. "he study shows a sharp increase in the incidence of vision pro lems in the sunny regions over the past three years. "hese findings suggest that anyone concerned a out eye damage from the 4un should avoid 4o!Cow rand and instead either pay for higher!priced rands or wear no sunglasses at all.& ###############

A recently completed study shows that people dwelling in stairs!only apartment uildings Ethat is, uildings without elevatorsF live an average of three years longer than do people who live in uildings with oth elevators and stairs. A second study shows that elderly residents of uildings with elevators ma$e, on average, twice as many visits to doctors each year as do elderly residents of uildings without elevators. "hese findings suggest that even a very moderate amount of daily e-ercise, such as that re)uired to use the stairs leading to and from one's apartment, can increase people's health and longevity. "he findings also suggest that new apartment uildings should e constructed with as few elevators as possi le. ############### "he following appeared in a clothing industry trade 5ournal in the country of 4artoria. &A popular fashion maga(ine recently conducted a survey of consumers' opinions a out clothing prices, using prepaid mailing envelopes. /ighty!nine percent of the appro-imately 20,000 respondents reported that they were either 'dissatisfied' or 'very dissatisfied' with current clothing prices. "he large num er of responses indicates that the 4artorian clothing industry is at ris$. 6iven the survey results, clothing manufacturers must find a way to reduce prices in order to $eep their e-isting customers and maintain their usinesses.& ############### "he following appeared in a memo from 6rocery "own's regional manager. &"he new 6rocery "own store in /lm +ity, located near a new residential development, has a 'high!low' pricing policy where average prices are relatively high, ut deep discounts are offered on some items in wee$ly specials. "his store has een showing increased profits every month as the near y residential development gets closer to full capacity. It follows that people prefer a pricing policy where they can find argains on specific items. 4ince there is a new residential development planned in 7a$ +ity, we should change the pricing policy at all of our 7a$ +ity stores from our current 'everyday low prices' policy to a 'high!low' policy. "his will increase the profits at all of our stores in 7a$ +ity.& ############### "he following is a memo from the usiness manager of <alu!8art stores. &7ver B0 percent of the respondents to a recent survey reported that they are re)uired to ta$e more wor$ home with them from the wor$place than they were in the past. 4ince <alu!8art has not seen impressive sales in its office!supply departments in the past, we should ta$e advantage of this wor$!at!home trend y increasing at all <alu!8art stores the stoc$ of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders, and fa- machines. 9e will also increase stoc$ of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. 9ith these changes, our office! supply departments will ecome the most profita le component of our stores.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter from a national astronomy association.

&<arious sources are predicting higher!than!average temperatures across the country ne-t winter, including in 4un +ity, the traditional location of our yearly winter conference. ;igher winter temperatures are sure to result in higher!than!usual tourism in 4un +ity, a location already $nown for its attractive eaches and good weather. ;otels will have fewer rooms availa le, transportation will e more difficult to reserve, and pu lic places such as par$s and restaurants will e more crowded. "hese conditions are li$ely to significantly reduce attendance at the conference. 9e should therefore move our conference to a city less popular with winter tourists.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of the 9aymarsh "imes. &"raffic pro lems here in 9aymarsh are o viously reaching record levels. 9hile 5ust three months ago it would ta$e me 1@ minutes to get to wor$, it now ta$es closer to 2@. 9aymarsh should follow the e-ample of our neigh oring city 6earsville. Cast year, 6earsville implemented a policy that rewards people who share rides to wor$ with coupons for free gas. .ollution levels in 6earsville have dropped since the policy was implemented, and several friends who live in 6earsville tell me that their trip to wor$ is )uic$er than it used to e. 9ith the terri le traffic and high pollution in 9aymarsh, we must implement a policy similar to 6earsville's.& ############### "he following appeared in a health newsletter. &A ten!year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while icycling indicates that ten years ago, appro-imately 3@ percent of all icyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that num er is nearly A0 percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten!year period, the num er of accidents caused y icycling has increased 200 percent. "hese results demonstrate that icyclists feel safer ecause they are wearing helmets and they ta$e more ris$s as a result. "hus, to reduce the num er of serious in5uries from icycle accidents, the government should concentrate more on educating people a out icycle safety and less on encouraging or re)uiring icyclists to wear helmets.& ############### "he following is a memo from the president of +y erell +omputer +ompany. &All of our customer!service employees recently attended a two!day retreat during which they received retraining in effective customer service. 4u se)uently, +y erell's employee!performance study showed that the retreat enefited new employees # those who have wor$ed with +y erell for less than two years # far more than it did e-perienced employees. According to the study, after the retreat new employees were a le to handle an average of ten percent more calls per hour, and the total num er of customer complaints a out new employees decreased, ut e-perienced employees showed little improvement in these areas. "herefore, +y erell should send only new employees to future retreats and should use the resulting savings to dou le the length of the retreats so that the retreats will e more li$ely to yield optimum employee performance.& ############### "he following appeared in the .ine +ity 6a(ette.

&*ifteen years ago, .ine +ity launched an electricity!conservation program that reim ursed residents some of the cost for replacing energy!wasteful motors, home office e)uipment, and home appliances with energy!efficient ones. *or ten years, spending on this program increased annually, and annual total energy consumption declined. 1ut spending on the program egan to decline five years ago, and since then .ine +ity's total electricity consumption has increased sharply. If this increased usage continues, the city will have to uild a costly new power plant. 7 viously the est way to avoid this e-pense is to increase reim ursement to residents for replacing energy!wasteful e)uipment. "his will reduce energy usage to the levels of five years ago.& ############### "he following appeared in a health newsletter. &/ating a heavy meal may increase the ris$ of heart attac$. A recent survey of 2,000 people who had had a heart attac$ revealed that 1@A of them said they had eaten a heavy meal within 2L hours efore their heart attac$, and 2@ of them said they had eaten a heavy meal within 2 hours efore their heart attac$. /ating and digesting food releases hormones into the loodstream and temporarily increases heart rate and lood pressure slightly. 1oth of these things put stress on the heart. "herefore, people who are at ris$ of having a heart attac$ can lower that ris$ y not overeating.& ############### "he following is a memo from the usiness manager of National 3aily News. &"o e-pand the home delivery service of our national newspaper, we should concentrate on the state of ,r a rather than on the state of 4ylva. *irst, the population of 4ylva is more widely dispersed, which would re)uire us to spend more money to deliver our papers in that area, resulting in less profit per customer. 4econd, a long!term study of television viewing ha its suggests that 4ylvans prefer local to national news, since they spend twice as much time viewing local news programs as they do viewing national programs. *inally, ecause events in ,r a receive more coverage in our newspaper than do events in 4ylva, we can e-pect ,r ans to e more interested in reading our newspaper.& ############### "he following is a recommendation from the president of Apple y +ollege. &9hereas Apple y +ollege holds class reunions every five years, /delston +ollege holds annual reunions for all classes, during which /delston's alumni are treated to an)uets, lectures, and student performances, enhancing their loyalty to the college and their willingness to donate money. /delston +ollege receives most of its alumni donations during or shortly after these reunions. "herefore, the est way for Apple y to increase its alumni donations is to offer similar reunion activities and to have each graduating class hold annual reunions.& ############### "he following appeared in a health maga(ine.

&It has long een elieved that getting at least eight hours of sleep a night is good for health. 1ut a recent si-!year study of adult sleeping ha its found that people who reported sleeping eight or more hours a night had a higher rate of certain health pro lems than did those who reported sleeping seven hours a night. .eople who reported sleeping five hours a night also had an increased rate of the health pro lems, ut this increase was slight compared to that for people who reported sleeping eight or more hours a night. +learly, people should try to get seven hours of sleep, and they should worry more a out getting too much sleep than too little.& ############### "he vice president for human resources at +limpson Industries sent the following recommendation to the company's president. &In an effort to improve our employees' productivity, we should implement electronic monitoring of employees' Internet use from their wor$stations. /mployees who use the Internet from their wor$stations need to e identified and punished if we are to reduce the num er of wor$ hours spent on personal or recreational activities, such as shopping or playing games. 1y installing software to detect employees' Internet use on company computers, we can prevent employees from wasting time, foster a etter wor$ ethic at +limpson, and improve our overall profits.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in the 6arden +ity 6a(ette. &"o address the par$ing pro lems in our downtown usiness district, it has een proposed that the city increase par$ing capacity y uilding a four!story par$ing garage. ;owever, this pro5ect would cost more than it would to improve the downtown pedestrian pla(a. 1ecause the pedestrian pla(a is an important attraction that draws people to the downtown area, improvements to it will increase usiness for downtown merchants. "he merchants' higher profits will ultimately produce increased ta- revenues for the city. "herefore, we should invest in the pla(a improvements first and then use the revenues thus generated to pay for the construction of the par$ing garage.& ############### "he following appeared in the 4herwood "imes newspaper. &A recent study reported that pet owners have longer, healthier lives on average than do people who own no pets. 4pecifically, dog owners tend to have a lower incidence of heart disease. In light of these findings, 4herwood ;ospital should form a partnership with 4herwood Animal 4helter to institute an 'adopt!a!dog' program. "he program would encourage dog ownership for patients recovering from heart disease, which will help reduce medical costs y reducing the num er of these patients needing ongoing treatment. In addition, the pu licity a out the program will encourage more people to adopt pets from the shelter, which will reduce the ris$ of heart disease in the general population.& ############### "he following appeared in the annual report of a chain of stores that sell supplies for do!it! yourself home improvements.

&+urrent reports indicate that sales of new homes nationwide declined y 9 percent during the past year, while sales of e-isting homes increased y 1I percent. "hus we can e-pect that the percentage of homeowners who will e ma$ing repairs or improvements to their homes will also increase. In addition, people who uy e-isting homes will have more money left over after the purchase to spend on home improvements. *inally, people who uy e-isting homes are more li$ely to ma$e improvements themselves, as opposed to paying someone else. "hese factors com ined indicate we can e-pect an increasing demand for products in all our stores nationwide, thus increasing our profits in the coming year.& ############### "he following appeared in an environmental newsletter pu lished in "ria Island. &"he marine sanctuary on "ria Island was esta lished to protect certain marine mammals. Its regulations an dumping and offshore oil drilling within 20 miles of "ria, ut fishing is not anned. +urrently many fish populations in "ria's waters are declining, a situation lamed on pollution. In contrast, the marine sanctuary on 7mni Island has regulations that an dumping, offshore oil drilling, and fishing within 10 miles of 7mni and 7mni reports no significant decline in its fish populations. +learly, the decline in fish populations in "ria's waters is the result of overfishing, not pollution. "herefore, the est way to restore "ria's fish populations and to protect all of "ria's marine wildlife is to a andon our regulations and adopt those of 7mni.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in the local newspaper of 9or$ville. &9or$ers should e allowed to reduce their wor$load from L0 to 2@ or even 20 hours per wee$ ecause it is clear that people who wor$ part!time instead of full!time have etter health and improved morale. 7ne store in 9or$ville, which egan allowing its employees to wor$ part!time last year, reports that fewer days of sic$ leave were ta$en last year than in previous years. In contrast, the factory in 9or$ville, which does not allow any of its employees to wor$ part!time, had a slight increase in the num er of days of sic$ leave ta$en last year. In addition, a recent survey reports that most of the store employees stated that they are satisfied with their 5o s, while many of the factory employees stated that they are dissatisfied with their 5o s.& ############### "he following is a memo from the principal of Academia ;igh 4chool. &Academia ;igh 4chool should a olish its after!school performing!arts programs and replace them with computer!technology programs. 9hen near y "echno ;igh 4chool did so last year, total enrollment in all of its after!school activities remained a out the same. 8oreover, on entering college, many "echno students chose a ma5or directly related to their after!school activities. 7n the other hand, last year only 10 percent of Academia's graduating seniors chose performing arts as their ma5or field of study in their first year of college, clearly indicating that most students do not have a strong interest in the performing arts.& ############### "he following was ta$en from a guide for aspiring writers.

&New writers usually cannot convince large, prestigious pu lishers that their wor$ is mar$eta le, so they must first pu lish with smaller, less well!$nown presses to esta lish a sales record. 1ut the editors of 8ystery 9riters 8aga(ine have good news for aspiring writers0 the num er of mystery novels pu lished in the last two years has grown significantly, and more people read mysteries than any other type of novel. In addition, almost half of the mystery novels pu lished last year were written y first!time novel writers. 4ince there is apparently an e-panding mar$et for mystery novels, all pu lishers will want to increase the num er of mystery novels they pu lish. "herefore, new writers should write mystery novels to increase their chances for first! time pu lication with a larger, prestigious company.& ############### "he following is a memorandum from the usiness manager of 9C44 television station. &7ver the past year, our late!night news program has devoted increasingly more time to covering national news and less time to covering weather and local news. 3uring the same time period, most of the complaints we received from viewers were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, several local usinesses that used to run advertisements during our late!night news program have 5ust cancelled their advertising contracts with us. "herefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should e-pand the coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs.& ############### "he following is part of a letter from the 1roo$free 4chool 1oard. &As part of our new educational reform program, we identified ten schools most in need of immediate improvement. An advisory committee is now recommending that we hire consultants to study further the schools' pro lems and to propose a plan of action. 7nly two years ago, however, another group of consultants determined that several schools in our district had pro lems ecause their principals were ine-perienced. "hus, if we want to see immediate improvement in our schools and save the district the money it would spend on hiring more consultants, we should replace all the principals in the ten worst schools with ten of our most e-perienced principals in the district.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in the 8ason +ity newspaper. &At present, 8ason +ity residents seldom use the near y 8ason %iver for any $ind of recreational activity, even though surveys of the region's residents consistently ran$ water sports Eswimming, fishing, and oatingF as a favorite form of recreation. 4ince there have een complaints a out the )uality of the water in the river, residents must e avoiding the river ecause they thin$ that it is not clean enough. 1ut that situation is a out to change0 the agency responsi le for rivers in our region has announced plans to clean up 8ason %iver. "herefore, recreational use of the river is li$ely to increase, so the 8ason +ity council will need to increase its udget for improvements to the pu licly owned lands along the 8ason %iver.& ###############

"he following report appeared in a memo from the vice president of the 4outhside "ransportation Authority. &9e should a andon our current five!year plan to purchase additional uses to serve the campus of 4outhside ,niversity, ecause students there are unli$ely to use them. +onsider the results of the recent campaign sponsored y the /nvironmental +lu at 4outhside ,niversity0 in a program on the campus radio station, the clu as$ed students to call in and pledge that they would commute to school y us instead of y automo ile at least one day per wee$. 7nly ten percent of the students called in and pledged. In view of the campaign's lac$ of success, we can assume that the us service we currently offer will continue to e sufficient to serve the university.& ############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of an educational pu lication. &7ne study at Cee ,niversity found that first!semester grades of teenage students who had always attended pu lic, ta-!supported schools were slightly lower than the grades of students who had received some home schooling instruction y parents at home, although the grade differences disappeared in the second semester. "hese results suggest that home schooling is the est way to educate teenage children. "herefore, instead of spending more money on pu lic education, the government should provide financial incentives so that home schooling is an option for more parents. After all, children schooled at home receive more attention, since they are taught y the est possi le teacher0 a parent who has a high sta$e in educating them well.& ############### "he following appeared in a report of the +ommittee on *aculty .romotions and 4alaries at /lm +ity ,niversity. &3uring her 1B years as a professor of otany, .rofessor "homas has proved herself to e well worth her annual salary of ?@0,000. ;er classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity among students. 8oreover, the money she has rought to the university in research grants has e-ceeded her salary in each of the last two years. "herefore, in consideration of .rofessor "homas' demonstrated teaching and research a ilities, we recommend that she receive a ?10,000 raise and a promotion to 3epartment +hairperson> without such a raise and promotion, we fear that .rofessor "homas will leave /lm +ity ,niversity for another college.& ############### "he following appeared in a newsletter distri uted at a recent political rally. &7ver the past year, the +onsolidated +opper +ompany E+++F has purchased over one million s)uare miles of land in the tropical nation of 9est *redonia. 8ining copper on this land will inevita ly result in pollution and environmental disaster, since 9est *redonia is home to several endangered animal species. 1ut such disaster can e prevented if consumers simply refuse to purchase products that are made with +++'s copper until the company a andons its mining plans.& ###############

"he article entitled &/ating Iron& in last month's issue of /ating for ;ealth reported that a recent study found a correlation etween high levels of iron in the diet and an increased ris$ of heart disease. *urther, it is well esta lished that there is a lin$ etween large amounts of red meat in the diet and heart disease, and red meat is high in iron. 7n the asis of the study and the well! esta lished lin$ etween red meat and heart disease, we can conclude that the correlation etween high iron levels and heart disease, then, is most pro a ly a function of the correlation etween red meat and heart disease. ############### "he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper. &Hour recent article on corporate downsi(ing2 in the ,nited 4tates is misleading. "he article gives the mista$en impression that many competent wor$ers who lost 5o s as a result of downsi(ing face serious economic hardship, often for years, efore finding other suita le employment. 1ut this impression is contradicted y a recent report on the ,nited 4tates economy, which found that since 1992 far more 5o s have een created than have een eliminated. "he report also demonstrates that many of those who lost their 5o s have found new employment. "wo!thirds of the newly created 5o s have een in industries that tend to pay a ove!average wages, and the vast ma5ority of these 5o s are full!time.& 23ownsi(ing is the process in which corporations deli erately reduce the num er of their employees. ############### According to a poll of 200 charita le organi(ations, donations of money to nonprofit groups increased y nearly 2@ percent last year, though not all charities gained e)ually. %eligious groups gained the most E30 percentF, followed y environmental groups E23 percentF, whereas educational institutions e-perienced only a very small increase in donations E3 percentF. "his poll indicates that more people are willing and a le to give money to charities ut that funding for education is not a priority for most people. "hese differences in donation rates must result from the perception that educational institutions are less in need of donations than are other $inds of institutions. ############### A new study collected data that shows that people who snore are more li$ely to gain weight than are people who do not snore. It is well $nown that many people who snore also stop reathing fre)uently during the night for a few seconds, a condition called sleep apnea. "he interruption of reathing wa$es the person # often so riefly that the wa$ing goes unnoticed # and can leave the person too tired during the day to e-ercise. Anyone who snores, therefore, should try to eat less than the average person and to e-ercise more. ############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper. &"he li rarians in our town's school system have reported that the num er of trips that our students ma$e to their school li rary on a voluntary asis has decreased significantly in recent

years. *or e-ample, the average seventh!grade student visited the school li rary five times last year, ut four of those visits were part of re)uired classroom activities. "his shows that our students are reading less than in the past. "o address this pro lem, our town needs to improve the atmosphere of the li raries so that they will e comforta le places in which to wor$. If students view the li raries as uncomforta le, then they are unli$ely to want to spend much time there.& ############### "he following appeared in an editorial in a usiness maga(ine. &Although the sales of 9hirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video!game players suggests that this sales trend is a out to e reversed. "he survey as$ed video!game players what features they thought were most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifeli$e graphics, which re)uire the most up!to!date computers. 9hirlwind has 5ust introduced several such games with an e-tensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 2@ years old, the age!group most li$ely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of 9hirlwind video games are li$ely to increase dramatically in the ne-t few months.& ############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of 8onroetown's local newspaper. &8ayor 1rown was recently re!elected y a clear ma5ority of @2 percent of 8onroetown's voters. ;er re!election, however, does not show that most people in our town favored 8ayor 1rown's proposal for ta- reduction over that of her opponent, 8r. 6reene, who proposed raising ta-es to improve education. It has een shown that voters nationwide tend to re!elect people already in office, regardless of candidates' proposals. In fact, a local survey after the election showed most people in 8onroetown disagreed with 8ayor 1rown's proposal. +learly most people in 8onroetown favor improving education and therefore approve of 8r. 6reene's proposal despite the fact that they did not vote for him.& ############### "he following is a memorandum from the director of personnel to the president of 6et!Away Airlines. &4ince our mechanics are responsi le for inspecting and maintaining our aircraft, 6et!Away Airlines should pay to send them to the Ouality!+are 4eminar, a two!wee$ seminar on proper maintenance procedures. I recommend this seminar ecause it is li$ely to e a wise investment, given that the automo ile racing industry recently reported that the performance of its maintenance crews improved mar$edly after their crews had attended the seminar. "hese maintenance crews perform many of the same functions as do our mechanics, including refueling and repairing engines. "he money we spend on sending our staff to the seminar will inevita ly lead to improved maintenance and thus to greater customer satisfaction along with greater profits for our airline.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of an environmental maga(ine.

&"he decline in the num ers of amphi ians worldwide clearly indicates the glo al pollution of water and air. "wo studies of amphi ians in HosemiteNational .ar$ in +alifornia confirm my conclusion. In 191@ there were seven species of amphi ians in the par$, and there were a undant num ers of each species. ;owever, in 1992 there were only four species of amphi ians o served in the par$, and the num ers of each species were drastically reduced. "he decline in Hosemite has een lamed on the introduction of trout into the par$'s waters, which egan in 1920 Etrout are $nown to eat amphi ian eggsF. 1ut the introduction of trout cannot e the real reason for the Hosemite decline ecause it does not e-plain the worldwide decline.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of the Atticus +ity newspaper. &*ormer 8ayor 3urant owes an apology to the city of Atticus. 1oth the damage to the %iver 1ridge, which connects Atticus to ;artley, and the traffic pro lems we have long e-perienced on the ridge were actually caused 20 years ago y 3urant. After all, he is the one who approved the construction of the ridge. If he had approved a wider and etter!designed ridge, on which appro-imately the same amount of pu lic money would have een spent, none of the damage or pro lems would have occurred. Instead, the %iver 1ridge has deteriorated far more rapidly over the past 20 years than has the much longer 3er y1ridge up the river. /ven though the winters have een severe in the past several years, this is no e-cuse for the negligence and wastefulness of 3urant.& ############### "he following is a letter to the head of the tourism ureau on the island of "ria. &/rosion of each sand along the shores of "ria Island is a serious threat to our island and our tourist industry. In order to stop the erosion, we should charge people for using the eaches. Although this solution may annoy a few tourists in the short term, it will reduce the num er of people using the eaches and will raise money for replenishing the sand. %eplenishing the sand, as was done to protect uildings on the near y island of 1atia, will help protect uildings along our shores, there y reducing these uildings' ris$ of additional damage from severe storms. And since the areas along the shore will e more attractive as a result, the eaches will e preserved and the area's tourist industry will improve over the long term.& ############### "he following is from an editorial in the 8idvale 7 server, a local newspaper. &/ver since the 19@0's when television sets egan to appear in the average home, the rate of crimes committed y teenagers in the country of Alta has steadily increased. "his increase in teenage crime parallels the increase in violence shown on television. According to several national studies, even very young children who watch a great num er of television shows featuring violent scenes display more violent ehavior within their home environment than do children who do not watch violent shows. *urthermore, in a survey conducted y the 7 server, over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who indicated that prime!time television # programs that are shown etween B p.m. and 9 p.m. # should show less violence. "herefore, in order to lower the rate of teenage crime in Alta, television viewers should demand that television programmers reduce the amount of violence shown during prime time.&

############### "he following appeared in the editorial section of a health and fitness maga(ine. &In a study of the effects of e-ercise on longevity, medical researchers trac$ed @00 middle!aged men over a 20!year period. "he su 5ects represented a variety of occupations in several different parts of the country and responded to an annual survey in which they were as$ed0 ;ow often and how strenuously do you e-erciseP 7f those who responded, the men who reported that they engaged in vigorous outdoor e-ercise nearly every day lived longer than the men who reported that they e-ercised mildly only once or twice a wee$. 6iven the clear lin$ that this study esta lishes etween longevity and e-ercise, doctors should not recommend moderate e-ercise to their patients ut should instead encourage vigorous outdoor e-ercise on a daily asis.& ############### "he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. &"oo much emphasis is placed on the development of reading s$ills in elementary school. 8any students who are discouraged y the lonely activity of reading turn away from schoolwor$ merely ecause they are poor readers. 1ut oo$s recorded on audiocassette tape provide an important alternative for students at this crucial stage in their education, one the school oard should not re5ect merely ecause of the e-pense involved. After all, many studies attest to the value of allowing students to hear oo$s read aloud> there is even evidence that students whose parents read to them are even more li$ely to ecome a le readers. "hus, hearing oo$s on tape can only ma$e students more eager to read and to learn. "herefore, the school oard should encourage schools to uy oo$s on tape and to use them in elementary education.& ############### "he following is ta$en from an advertisement placed in a wee$ly usiness maga(ine y the 3ic$ensAcademy. &9e distri uted a survey to senior management at International 8ega!.u lishing, Inc. "he result of the survey clearly indicates that many employees were well prepared in usiness $nowledge and computer s$ills, ut lac$ed interpersonal s$ills to interact gracefully with customers. International 8ega!.u lishing decided to improve customer satisfaction y sending their newly hired employees to our one!day seminars. 4ince ta$ing advantage of our program, International 8ega!.u lishing has seen a sharp increase in sales, an indication that the num er of their disgruntled customers has declined significantly. Hour company should hire 3ic$ens and let us turn every employee into an am assador for your company.& ############### "he following is a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. &As a local merchant, I wish to support the development of a s$i resort in the state par$ north of our township. Along with many other merchants who favor the proposal y 4$i the 4lopes, Incorporated, I would, of course, e-perience a growth in my usiness. 1ut I also $now how much more prosperous, not to mention lively and interesting, our community would e if tourism increased. 4ince the main opposition comes from a few environmentalists2 who do not even live

in this community, I see no reason to give in to their views. "he *irst National 1an$ has finally researched the pro5ect and agreed to fund it. As a result, I see no reason to delay development of the resort.& /nvironmentalists are people who advocate the preservation of the natural environment. ############### "he "rash!4ite 4afety +ouncil has recently conducted a statewide study of possi le harmful effects of gar age sites on the health of people living near the sites. A total of five sites and 300 people were e-amined. "he study revealed, on average, only a small statistical correlation etween the pro-imity of homes to gar age sites and the incidence of une-plained rashes among people living in these homes. *urthermore, although it is true that people living near the largest trash sites had a slightly higher incidence of the rashes, there was otherwise no correlation etween the si(e of the gar age sites and people's health. "herefore, the council is pleased to announce that the current system of gar age sites does not pose a significant health ha(ard. 9e see no need to restrict the si(e of such sites in our state or to place any restrictions on the num er of homes uilt near the sites. ############### "he nation of +laria covers a vast physical area. 1ut despite wide geographic differences, many citi(ens are e-periencing rising costs of electricity. A recent study of household electric costs in +laria found that families who cooled their houses with fans alone spent more on electricity than did families using air conditioners alone for cooling. ;owever, those households that reported using oth fans and air conditioners spent less on electricity than those households that used either fans or air conditioners alone. "hus, the citi(ens of +laria should follow the study's recommendation and use oth air conditioners and fans in order to save money on electricity. ############### As people grow older, an en(yme $nown as ./. increasingly rea$s down the neuropeptide chemicals involved in learning and memory. 1ut now, researchers have found compounds that prevent ./. from rea$ing neuropeptides apart. In tests, these compounds almost completely restored lost memory in rats. "he use of these compounds should e e-tended to students who have poor memory and difficulty in concentrating # and therefore serious pro lems in school performance. 4cience finally has a solution for pro lems neither parents nor teachers could solve. ############### In a study of reading ha its of Ceeville citi(ens conducted y the ,niversity of Ceeville, most respondents said they preferred literary classics as reading material. ;owever, a follow!up study conducted y the same researchers found that the type of oo$ most fre)uently chec$ed out of each of the pu lic li raries in Ceeville was the mystery novel. "herefore, it can e concluded that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading ha its.