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.
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"he following is ta$en from the editorial section of the local newspaper in %oc$ingham.
&In order to save a considerale amount of money, %oc$ingham's century(old town hall should e torn down
and replaced y the larger and more energy(efficient uilding that some citi)ens have proposed. "he old town
hall is too small to comfortaly accommodate the numer of people who are employed y the town. In addition,
it is very costly to heat the old hall in winter and cool it in summer. "he new, larger uilding would e more
energy efficient, costing less per s*uare foot to heat and cool than the old hall. +urthermore, it would e
possile to rent out some of the space in the new uilding, therey generating income for the town of
%oc$ingham.&
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,laitown -niversity needs oth affordale housing for its students and a way to fund the uilding of such
housing. "he est solution to this prolem is to commission a famous architect $nown for e.perimental and
futuristic uildings. It is common $nowledge that tourists are willing to pay money to tour some of the architect's
uildings, so it can e e.pected that tourists will want to visit this new uilding. "he income from the fees
charged to tourists will soon cover the uilding costs. +urthermore, such a uilding will attract new students as
well as donations from alumni. And even though such a uilding will e much larger than our current need for
student housing, part of the uilding can e used as office space.
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"he following appeared in a usiness maga)ine.
&As a result of numerous consumer complaints of di))iness and nausea, /romofoods re*uested that eight
million cans of tuna e returned for testing last year. /romofoods concluded that the cans did not, after all,
contain chemicals that posed a health ris$. "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 $inds of canned foods.&
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"he following appeared in a local newspaper.
&/eople should not e misled y the advertising competition etween ,olde. and ,old(Away, oth popular
over(the(counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. 0ach rand is
accusing the other of causing some well($nown, unwanted side effect1 ,olde. is $nown to contriute to e.isting
high lood pressure and ,old(Away is $nown to cause drowsiness. 2ut the choice should e clear for most
health(conscious people1 ,old(Away has een on the mar$et for much longer and is used y more hospitals
than is ,olde.. ,learly, ,old(Away is more effective.&
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A fol$ remedy3 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$s on lavender(scented pillows in a controlled
room where their sleep was monitored. 4uring the first wee$, volunteers continued to ta$e their usual sleeping
medication. "hey slept soundly ut wa$ened feeling tired. 4uring the second wee$, the volunteers discontinued
their medication. As a result, they slept less soundly than the previous wee$ and felt even more tired. 4uring
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.
3A 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.
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"ypically, as people age, their one mass decreases, ma$ing them more vulnerale to one fractures. A recent
study concludes that the most effective way to reduce the ris$ of fractures in later life is to ta$e twice the
recommended dose of vitamin 4 and calcium daily. "he three(year study followed a group of +rench women in
their eighties who were nursing(home residents. "he women were given daily supplements of twice the
recommended dose of vitamin 4 and calcium. In addition, the women participated in a light weightlifting
program. After three years, these women showed a much lower rate of hip fractures than is average for their
age.
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"he following appeared in a letter from a department chairperson to the president of /ierce -niversity.
&5ome studies conducted y 2ronston ,ollege, which is also located in a small town, reveal that oth male and
female professors are happier living in small towns when their spouses are also employed in the same
geographic area. "herefore, in the interest of attracting the most gifted teachers and researchers to our faculty
and improving the morale of our entire staff, we at /ierce -niversity should offer employment to the spouse of
each new faculty memer we hire. Although we cannot e.pect all offers to e accepted or to e viewed as an
ideal 6o offer, the money invested in this effort will clearly e well spent ecause, if their spouses have a
chance of employment, new professors will e more li$ely to accept our offers.&
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+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 7ulf ,oast oysters. "his trend egan shortly after harmful acteria were
found in a few raw 7ulf ,oast oysters. 2ut scientists have now devised a process for $illing the acteria. 8nce
consumers are made aware of the increased safety of 7ulf ,oast oysters, they are li$ely to e willing to pay as
much for 7ulf ,oast as for northeastern Atlantic ,oast oysters, and greater profits for 7ulf ,oast oyster
producers will follow.
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"he following appeared in a memo from the mar$eting director of 2argain 2rand ,ereals.
&8ne year ago we introduced our first product, '2argain 2rand' rea$fast cereal. 8ur 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. 7iven our
success selling cereal, 2argain 2rand should now e.pand its usiness and egin mar$eting other low(priced
food products as *uic$ly as possile.&
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"he 9o)art 5chool of 9usic should oviously e the first choice of any music student aware of its reputation.
+irst of all, the 9o)art 5chool stresses intensive practice and training, so that students typically egin their
training at a very young age. 5econd, 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 9o)art
graduates have gone on to e the est $nown and most highly paid musicians in the nation.
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"he following is a memorandum issued y the pulisher of a newsmaga)ine, Newseat, in the country of 4inn.
&8ur poorest(selling maga)ine issues over the past three years were those that featured international news
stories on their front covers. 8ver the same period, competing news(maga)ines have significantly decreased
the numer of cover stories that they devote to international news. 9oreover, 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.&
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"he following recommendation was made y the president and administrative staff of 7rove ,ollege, a private
institution, to the college's governing committee.
&:e recommend that 7rove ,ollege preserve its century(old tradition of all(female education rather than admit
men into its programs. It is true that a ma6ority of faculty memers voted in favor of coeducation, arguing that it
would encourage more students to apply to 7rove. 2ut 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 $eep supporting the college financially.&
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"he following appeared in a letter to the school oard in the town of ,enterville.
&All students should e re*uired to ta$e the driver's education course at ,enterville <igh 5chool. In the past two
years several accidents in and around ,enterville have involved teenage drivers. 5ince a numer 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 prolem.&
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"he following is a memorandum from the sales director to the president of the <ealthy(and(7ood food
company.
&A recent study indicates that =enadial, a new margarine currently produced only in the country of Alta, actually
reduces cholesterol levels. 4erived from the resin of pine trees, =enadial wor$s y activating a metaolic
response that is not yet well understood. <owever, cholesterol levels fell ten to fifteen percent among
participants in the study who consumed =enadial daily, and the ris$ of heart attac$ y one(third. In addition, the
new margarine is so popular that stores in Alta are unale to $eep it on their shelves. "herefore, if our company
otains the e.clusive right to sell =enadial internationally, our profits are sure to increase sustantially within a
very short time.&
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"he following is a letter that recently appeared in the 8a$ ,ity 7a)ette, a local newspaper.
&9emership in 8a$ ,ity's ,ivic ,lu # a clu whose primary o6ective is to discuss local issues # should
continue to e restricted to people who live in 8a$ ,ity. /eople who wor$ in 8a$ ,ity ut who live elsewhere
cannot truly understand the usiness and politics of the city. It is important to restrict memership 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 memership in this way is unli$ely to disappoint many
of the nonresidents employed in 8a$ ,ity, since neighoring 0lm ,ity's ,ivic ,lu has always had an open
memership policy, and only twenty(five nonresidents have 6oined 0lm ,ity's ,lu in the last ten years.&
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"he following appeared in the annual report from the president of the National 2rush ,ompany.
&In order to save money, we at the National 2rush ,ompany have decided to pay our employees for each
rush they produce instead of for the time they spend producing rushes. :e 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 enale 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 $eep their 6os and that the company will earn a profit in the coming year.&
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"he following is a memorandum written y the director of personnel to the president of the ,edar ,orporation.
&It would e a mista$e to rehire the 7ood("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 'unearale.' 8ur
company should instead hire 4iscount +oods. 4iscount 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 4iscount serves
and it was delicious # an indication that hiring 4iscount will lead to improved employee satisfaction.&
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"he following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme /ulishing ,ompany.
&9any other companies have recently stated that having their employees ta$e the 0asy %ead 5peed(%eading
,ourse has greatly improved productivity. 8ne graduate of the course was ale to read a five(hundred(page
report in only two hours? another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in
under a year. 8viously, the faster you can read, the more information you can asor in a single wor$day.
9oreover, 0asy %ead costs only @A00 per employee # a small price to pay when you consider the enefits to
Acme. Included in this fee is a three(wee$ seminar in 5pruce ,ity and a lifelong suscription to the 0asy %ead
newsletter. ,learly, Acme would enefit greatly y re*uiring all of our employees to ta$e the 0asy %ead
course.&
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+rom a letter to the editor of a city newspaper.
&8ne recent research study has indicated that many adolescents need more sleep than they are getting, and
another study has shown that many high school students in our city are actually dissatisfied with their own
academic performance. As a way of comating these prolems, the high schools in our city should egin
classes at B130 A.9. instead of C130 A.9., and end the school day an hour later. "his arrangement will give
students an e.tra hour of sleep in the morning, therey ma$ing them more alert and more productive.
,onse*uently, the students will perform etter on tests and other assignments, and their academic s$ills will
improve significantly.&
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2utter has now een replaced y margarine in <appy /anca$e <ouse restaurants throughout the southwestern
-nited 5tates. 8nly aout 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that 9B people out of 100 are
happy with the change. +urthermore, many servers have reported that a numer 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$e <ouse should e.tend this cost(saving change to
its restaurants in the southeast and northeast as well.
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9any employees of ma6or -nited 5tates corporations are fearful that they will lose their 6os in the near future,
ut this fear is largely unfounded. According to a recent study, a ma6ority of companies e.pected to ma$e new
hires in the coming year, while fewer companies e.pected to lay off employees. In addition, although it is very
disturing to e laid off, the proliferation of programs and of wor$shops designed to improve 6o(finding s$ills
has made eing laid off far less painful than it once was.
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In the 2ayhead /ulic Dirary, 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 lirary's only copy is chec$ed out. ,learly,
the lirary's plan to replace oo$s that are orrowed no more than once a year with sufficient copies of more
recent oo$s will solve this prolem. "he protest we have heard since this plan was made pulic has come
from a small, and thus unrepresentative, group of some thirty people and so should therefore e ignored.
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"he following appeared in a letter from the owner of the 5unnyside "owers apartment uilding to its manager.
&8ne month ago, all the showerheads on the first five floors of 5unnyside" owers were modified to restrict the
water flow to appro.imately 1E3 of its original force. Although actual readings of water usage efore and after
the ad6ustment are not yet availale, the change will oviously result in a considerale savings for 5unnyside
,orporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. 0.cept for a few complaints aout low water
pressure, no prolems with showers have een reported since the ad6ustment. ,learly, restricting water flow
throughout all the 20 floors of 5unnyside "owers will increase our profits further.&
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"he following is a recommendation from the director of personnel to the president of /rofessional /rinting
,ompany.
&In a recent telephone survey of automoile factory wor$ers, older employees were less li$ely to report that
having a supervisor present increases their productivity. Among wor$ers aged 1B to 29, 2C 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 B percent for those aged A0 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. &
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"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 5tates. "wo scientists
have recently suggested that omega (3 fatty acids Ffound in some fish and fish oilsG play a $ey role in mental
health. 8ur ancestors, who ate less saturated fat and more polyunsaturated fat, including omega (3 fatty acids,
were much less li$ely to suffer from depression than we are today. 9oreover, modern societies # such as
those in >apan and "aiwan # that consume large *uantities of fish report depression rates lower than that in
the -nited 5tates. 7iven this lin$ etween omega (3 fatty acids and depression, it is important for all people in
the -nited 5tates to increase their consumption of fish in order to prevent depression.&
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A new report suggests that men and women e.perience pain very differently from one another, and that
doctors should consider these differences when prescriing pain medications. :hen researchers administered
the same dosage of $appa opioids # a pain$iller # to 2B 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
consideraly longer in women. "his research suggests that $appa opioids should e prescried for women
whenever pain medication is re*uired, whereas men should e given other $inds of pain medication. In
addition, researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women.
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"he following is a recommendation from the dean at +oley ,ollege, a small lieral arts college, to the president
of the college.
&5ince college(ound students are increasingly concerned aout 6o prospects after graduation, +oley ,ollege
should attempt to increase enrollment y promising to find its students 6os after they graduate. 9any
administrators feel that this strategy is a way for +oley to compete against larger and more prestigious schools
and to encourage students to egin preparing for careers as soon as they enter college. +urthermore, a student
who must choose a career path within his or her first year of college and who is guaranteed a 6o after
graduation is more li$ely to successfully complete the coursewor$ that will prepare him or her for the future.&
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"he following is a letter to the editor of the 7lenville 7a)ette, a local newspaper.
&8ver the past few years, the numer of people who have purchased advance tic$ets for the 7lenville 5ummer
,oncert series has declined, indicating lac$ of community support. Although the weather has een
unpredictale in the past few years, this cannot e the reason for the decline in advance tic$et purchases,
ecause many people attended the concerts even in ad weather. ,learly, then, the reason for the decline is
the choice of music, so the organi)ers of the concert should feature more modern music in the future and
should e sure to include music composed y %icherts, whose recordings 7lenville residents purchase more
often than any other contemporary recordings. "his strategy will undoutedly increase advance tic$et
purchases and will increase attendance at the concerts.&
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"he following is a letter from a professor at Hanadu ,ollege to the college's president.
&"he development of an e.tensive computer(ased long(distance learning program will enhance the reputation
of Hanadu ,ollege. "his program would allow more students to enroll in our courses, therey 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 pro6ect last year. Also, y using
computer programs and taped lectures, faculty will have fewer classroom oligations and more time to engage
in e.tensive research, therey enhancing the reputation of Hanadu.&
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"he following is a letter to the editor of the %oseville 7a)ette.
&4espite opposition from some residents of :est %oseville, the arguments in favor of merging the townships of
%oseville and :est %oseville are overwhelming. +irst, residents in oth townships are confused aout which
authority to contact when they need a service? for e.ample, the police department in %oseville receives many
calls from residents of :est %oseville. "his sort of confusion would e eliminated with the merger. 5econd, the
savings in administrative costs would e enormous, since services would no longer e duplicated1 we would
have only one fire chief, one ta. department, one mayor, and so on. And no 6os in city government would e
lost # employees could simply e reassigned. 9ost importantly, the merger will undoutedly attract usiness
investments as it did when the townships of <amden and North <amden merged ten years ago.&
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"he 4epartment of 0ducation in the state of Attra recommends that high school students e assigned
homewor$ every day. Iet a recent statewide survey of high school math and science teachers calls the
usefulness of daily homewor$ into *uestion. In the district of 5anlee, BJ percent of the teachers reported
assigning homewor$ three to five times a wee$, whereas in the district of 9arlee, less than 2A percent of the
teachers reported assigning homewor$ three to five times a wee$. Iet the students in 9arlee earn etter
grades overall and are less li$ely to e re*uired to repeat a year of school than are the students in 5anlee.
"herefore, all teachers in our high schools should assign homewor$ no more than twice a wee$, if at all.
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A recent study suggests that people who are left(handed are more li$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. 5o the percentage of prominent usiness e.ecutives who
are left(handed F21 percentG is almost twice the percentage of people in the general population who are left(
handed F11 percentG. "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.hiited y left(
handers.
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"he following is a letter from an editor at Dier /ulishing ,ompany to the company's president.
&In recent years, Dier has unfortunately moved away from its original mission1 to pulish the wor$s of regional
small(town authors instead of those of ig(city authors. >ust last year, 90 percent of the novels we pulished
were written y authors who maintain a residence in a ig city. Although this change must have een intended
to increase profits, it has oviously ac$fired, ecause Dier is now in serious financial troule. "he only way to
address this prolem is to return to our original mission. If we return to pulishing only the wor$s of regional
small(town authors, our financial troules will soon e resolved.&
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5adly, widespread negative images of usinesspeople have een created in large part y television. ,onsider
the fact that, although they ma$e up a mere 10 percent of the characters in dramatic roles on television,
usinesspeople are responsile for aout one(fifth of all the crime on television shows. In fact, in a recent
survey of television producers, only 3A percent of the television roles for usinesspeople were viewed as
positive ones.
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"he following appeared as part of a recommendation made y a faculty memer to the president of a large
university.
&Never once in our 1A0(year history as a university have we clarified our o6ectives. <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$ing faculty memers why they teach, as$ing students
what they want from this university, and as$ing former students what they gained from their own education
here. :hen the replies come in, we can taulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational
mission. "his will surely result in improved programs at our university.&
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"here is a general idea that a translation always fails to preserve some of the *ualities that distinguish the
original wor$ # i.e., that 'something always gets lost in translation.' :riters, critics, and the general reading
pulic unthin$ingly accept this clichK. 2ut this elief is unwarranted1 translators are sometimes distinguished
authors themselves, and some authors may even translate their own wor$s. As the translator pointed out in the
preface to an 0nglish version of 4ante's wor$s, the violin and the piano ma$e different sounds, ut they can
play what is recogni)aly the same piece of music.
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"here is a general idea that waiters and waitresses are more li$ely to receive larger gratuities from large groups
of people. A recent research study suggests this is not true. "he researchers e.amined the relationship
etween the si)e of tips in restaurants and the numer of meals charged on the ill. "hey found that, while
most tips were around 1A percent, the minimum percentage considered appropriate, people dining alone tipped
consistently more F19 percentG and those dining in groups of four or more tipped consideraly less F13 percentG
than this 1A percent standard. "hese results strongly suggest that people dining in a group are less li$ely to feel
personally responsile for leaving an ade*uate or generous tip.
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5tatistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist.
"his evidence suggests that men are more li$ely to e distressed aout having dental wor$ 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.
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"he citi)ens of +orsythe have adopted healthier lifestyles. "heir responses to a recent survey show that in their
eating haits 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 $iran, a sustance
that a scientific study has shown reduces cholesterol. "his trend is also evident in reduced sales of sulia, a food
that few of the healthiest citi)ens regularly eat.
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<umans arrived in the ;ali$o Islands aout C,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. Iet 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.
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"he following appeared in a newspaper feature story.
&At the small, nonprofit hospital in the town of 5aluda, the average length of a patient's stay is two days? at the
large, for(profit hospital in the neary city of 9egaville, the average patient stay is si. days. Also, the cure rate
among patients in the 5aluda hospital is aout twice that of the 9egaville hospital. "he 5aluda hospital has
more employees per patient than the hospital in 9egaville, and there are few complaints aout service at the
local hospital. 5uch data indicate that treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of etter
*uality than treatment in larger, for(profit hospitals.&
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"he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a farming pulication.
&:ith continuing pulicity aout the need for healthful diets, and with new research aout the harmful effects of
eating too much sugar, nationwide demand for sugar will no dout 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 neighoring country of /alin greatly increased their production of peanuts last
year, and their total revenues from that crop were *uite high.&
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"he following appeared in a recommendation from the president of Amurg's ,hamer of ,ommerce.
&Dast 8ctoer the city of 2elleville installed high intensity lighting in its central usiness district, and vandalism
there declined almost immediately. "he city of Amurg has recently egun police patrols on icycles in its
usiness district ut the rate of vandalism there remains constant. 5ince high intensity lighting is apparently the
most effective way to comat crime, we should install such lighting throughout Amurg. 2y reducing crime in
this way, we can revitali)e the declining neighorhoods in our city.&
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"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the /ar$ville 4aily Newspaper.
&"hroughout the country last year, as more and more children elow the age of nine participated in youth(
league softall and soccer, over B0,000 of these young players suffered in6uries. :hen interviewed for a recent
study, youth(league softall players in several ma6or 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$e
away time that could e used for academic activities. 5ince the disadvantages apparently outweigh any
advantages, we in /ar$ville should discontinue organi)ed athletic competition for children under nine.&
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It is $nown that in recent years, industrial pollution has caused the 0arth's o)one layer to thin, allowing an
increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the 0arth's surface. At the same time, scientists
have discovered, the population of a species of salamander that lays its eggs in mountain la$es has declined.
5ince ultraviolet radiation is $nown to e damaging to delicate tissues and since salamander eggs have no
protective shells, it must e the case that the increase in ultraviolet radiation has damaged many salamander
eggs and prevented them from hatching. "his process will no dout cause population declines in other species,
6ust as it has in the salamander species.
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"he following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electric power company.
&5everal recent surveys indicate that homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy and
manufacturers are now mar$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 availale 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. 5ince 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 9anager 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 5alvo, our profits have fallen
consideraly. "hus, we should as$ for her resignation in return for a generous severance pac$age. In /at's
place, we should appoint %osa :innings. %osa is currently president of 5tarlight >ewelry, a company whose
profits have increased dramatically over the past several years. Although we will have to pay %osa twice the
salary that /at has een receiving, it will e well worth it ecause we can soon e.pect our profits to increase
consideraly.&
###############
"he following is a letter to the editor of a news maga)ine.
&,learly, the successful use of roots on missions to e.plore outer space in the past 20 years demonstrates
that roots could e increasingly used to perform factory wor$ more effectively, efficiently, and profitaly than
human factory wor$ers. "he use of roots in factories would offer several advantages. +irst, roots never get
sic$, so asenteeism would e reduced. 5econd, roots do not ma$e mista$es, so factories would increase
their output. +inally, the use of roots 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 :aymarsh -niversity.
&5o that we can etter accomplish :aymarsh -niversity's academic goals, we should adopt the 6o(opportunity
F6o(opG program offered at /lateau "echnical ,ollege and strongly encourage all students at :aymarsh to
participate in it. "he success of the 6o(op program at /lateau is evident1 8ver the past two years, more than
CAL of the freshmen at /lateau have enrolled in the optional 6o(op program. 9oreover, at /lateau, the grades
of 6o(op students are consistently higher than those of other students, 90L of the 6o(op students receive 6o
offers within a month after their graduation, and most former 6o(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. 2ut now, since many regions in this country report rapid increases in the numers
of newly licensed drivers, we should e ale to increase our share of the mar$et y selling cars to this growing
population. "hus, we should discontinue our oldest models and concentrate instead on manufacturing sporty
cars. :e can also improve the success of our mar$eting campaigns y switching our advertising to the Iouth
Advertising agency, which has successfully promoted the country's leading soft drin$.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Armchair =ideo, a chain of video rental stores.
&2ecause of declining profits, we must reduce operating e.penses at Armchair =ideo's ten video rental stores.
%aising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our special argains. Instead, we should reduce
our operating hours. Dast month our store in downtown 9arston reduced its hours y closing at J100 /.9.
rather than 9100 /.9. and reduced its overall inventory y no longer stoc$ing any film released more than two
years ago. 5ince we have received very few customer complaints aout 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 ma6ority of the money spent on government(run pulic school
education comes from ta.es that each city government collects. "he region's cities differ, however, in the value
they place on pulic education. +or e.ample, /arson ,ity typically udgets twice as much money per year as
2lue ,ity does for its pulic schools # even though oth cities have aout the same numer of residents. It
seems clear, therefore, that /arson ,ity residents care more aout pulic school education than do 2lue ,ity
residents.
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the 7randview ,ity ,ouncil from a local usiness leader.
&4uring last year's severe drought, when the water supply in the 7randview city reservoir fell to an e.tremely
low level, the city council imposed much more rigid water(rationing rules. 2ut 6ust after these rules were
imposed, industrial growth in the area declined. "his clearly shows that the new rationing rules have hurt
industry in 7randview. "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 aout planning for retirement.
&2ecause of its spectacular natural eauty and consistent climate, ,learview should e a top choice for anyone
see$ing a place to retire. As a onus, housing costs in ,learview have fallen significantly during the past year,
and real estate ta.es remain lower than those in neighoring towns. Nevertheless, ,learview's mayor promises
many new programs to improve schools, streets, and pulic services. %etirees in ,learview can also e.pect
e.cellent health care as they grow older, since the numer of physicians in the area is far greater than the
national average.&
###############
"he following appeared in a rochure promoting the purchase of local franchises for a national chain of gyms.
&Now is the time to invest in a /ower(Dift 7ym franchise so that you can profit from opening one of our gyms in
your town. ,onsider the current trends1 /ower(Dift 7yms are already popular among customers in A00
locations, and national surveys indicate increasing concern with weight loss and physical fitness. +urthermore,
last year's sales of oo$s and maga)ines on personal health totaled more than @A0 million, and purchases of
home e.ercise e*uipment almost douled. Investing now in a /ower(Dift 7ym franchise will guarantee a *uic$
profit.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of <yper(7o "oy ,ompany.
&Dast year, sales of our +ierce +ighter toy airplane declined sharply, even though the toy had een a top seller
for three years. 8ur customer surveys show that parents are now more worried aout youthful violence and are
concerned aout 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. 5everal other toy companies have already
egun mar$eting educational toys and report sales increases last year of 200 percent. And since the average
family income is growing, sales of new <yper(7o toys should also increase.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from a vice president of the 9egamart department store chain.
&+or the third year in a row, the average household income in our country has risen significantly. "hat
prosperity means that families are li$ely to e spending more time and money on leisure activities. 9egamart
stores should therefore concentrate on enlarging and promoting its line of products typically used in leisure
activities1 athletic and outdoor e*uipment, televisions, gourmet coo$ing e*uipment, and luggage and travel
accessories.&
###############
"he following appeared in an article in a maga)ine for writers.
&A recent study showed that in descriing a typical day's conversation, people ma$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 pulishing and oo$selling industries are li$ely to decline in profitaility.
"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$ers were etter teachers of %ussian is easy to see1 the non(native spea$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
ma6ors than social science ma6ors found permanent 6os within a year of graduation. In a survey of recent
<ooper -niversity graduates, most physical science ma6ors said they elieved that the prestige of <ooper
-niversity's physical science programs helped them significantly in finding a 6o. In contrast, social science
ma6ors who found permanent employment attriuted their success to their own personal initiative. "herefore, to
ensure that social science ma6ors find permanent 6os, <ooper -niversity should offer additional social science
courses and hire several new faculty memers who already have national reputations in the social sciences.&
###############
"he following appeared as an editorial in one of ,oleville's city newspapers.
&0ven 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(
estalished ones, so the usiness failures should not e considered a sign of poor economic health. Indeed,
many analysts regard the presence of a significant numer 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 A2, ,ereal ,ompany, the ma$ers of 2etter 2ran
cereal.
&5ales of 2etter 2ran have declined in recent years, for reasons that management has now identified. +irst,
2etter 2ran is a cereal with high sugar content, and recent research studies have found that most consumers
say they are concerned aout the amount of sugar added to their rea$fast cereal. 5econd, the price of 2etter
2ran has increased y A percent in each of the last three years. "herefore, to increase our company's profits
we need to reduce the amount of sugar in 2etter 2ran and lower 2etter 2ran's price.&
###############
"he following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.
&4uring her three years in office, 7overnor %iedeurg has shown herself to e a worthy leader. 5ince she too$
office, crime has decreased, the numer of 6os created per year has douled, and the numer of people
choosing to live in our state has increased. "hese trends are li$ely to continue if she is reelected. In addition,
9s. %iedeurg has promised to ta$e steps to $eep ig companies here, therey providing 6os for any new
residents. Anyone who loo$s at 9s. %iedeurg'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 automoile manufacturing company.
&2ecause the demand for our automoiles is e.pected to increase dramatically, we need to open a new
manufacturing plant as soon as possile in order to continue to thrive. 8ur mar$eting pro6ections indicate that
B0 million people will want to uy our automoiles, yet our e.isting plant can only produce M0 million
automoiles. "he new plant can e opened on a part(time asis, with wor$ers from our e.isting site rotating
responsiilities, until an operational staff can e trained. A ma6or 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
prohiit s$ateoarding there and instead allow s$ateoarders to use an area in 9onroe /ar$. At ,entral /la)a,
s$ateoard users are aout 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 ma6ority supported a prohiition on
s$ateoarding in the pla)a. ,learly, anning s$ateoarding 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 suurs directly to the city center. A direct lin$ to the
city center will enale 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. 2ooming
usinesses will attract *ualified wor$ers from all over the state, wor$ers who will e ale to ta$e advantage of
the new e.pressway to commute to wor$ in our city. In addition to these advantages, hundreds of wor$ers will
e employed to uild the e.pressway, further stimulating the local economyN&
###############
"he following appeared as part of a memo from the manager of a ha)ardous(waste disposal company.
&8ur new plan will help us etter protect our staff against e.posure to to.ic chemicals1 :e are fitting each new
safety suit with an alarm that will sound in the main control ooth when the suit is punctured. "he control ooth
will notify the managers on duty, who will then ta$e the necessary steps to ensure employees' safety. In
addition to the ovious safety(related enefits, the fast reaction time will ensure minimal wor$ stoppage and
thus result in increased wor$er productivity and company profitaility.&
###############
"he following appeared in a recommendation from the planning department of the city of "ransopolis.
&"en years ago, as part of a comprehensive uran renewal program, the city of "ransopolis adapted for
industrial use a large area of severely sustandard housing near the freeway. 5use*uently, several factories
were constructed there, crime rates in the area declined, and property ta. revenues for the entire city
increased. "o further revitali)e the city, we should now ta$e similar action in a declining residential area on the
opposite side of the city. 5ince some houses and apartments in e.isting neary neighorhoods are currently
unoccupied, alternate housing for those displaced y this action will e readily availale.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.
&"he memers of the town school oard should not e reelected ecause they are not concerned aout
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. 9eanwhile, over @300,000
of the high school udget goes to athletic programs, and the head footall coach is now the highest(paid
memer of the teaching staff.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the sales manager of 0co(/ower, a company that manufactures tools
and home appliances.
&9any popular radio and television commercials use memorale tunes and song lyrics to call attention to the
products eing advertised. Indeed, a recent study of high school students showed that BA percent could easily
recogni)e the tunes used to advertise leading soft drin$s and fast(food restaurants. 4espite our company's
e.tensive advertising in maga)ines during the past year, sales of our home appliances declined. "herefore, to
oost company profits, we should now switch to advertisements featuring a distinctive song.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a company that uilds shopping malls throughout
the country.
&"he surface of a section of %oute 101, paved two years ago y 9cAdam %oad 2uilders, is now adly crac$ed
and marred y dangerous potholes. In another part of the state, a section of %oute JJ, 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. 2ecause of its superior wor$ and
commitment to *uality, we should contract with Appian %oadways rather than 9cAdam %oad 2uilders 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. 2usinesses in the small town of Deeville report fewer
days of sic$ leave ta$en y individual wor$ers than do usinesses in the neary large city of 9ason ,ity.
+urthermore, Deeville has only one physician for its one thousand residents, ut in 9ason ,ity the proportion of
physicians to residents is five times as high. And the average age of Deeville residents is significantly higher
than that of 9ason ,ity residents. "hese findings suggest that people see$ing longer and healthier lives should
consider moving to small communities.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from the general manager of ;N8: radio station.
&5everal factors indicate that radio station ;N8: should shift its programming from roc$(and(roll music to a
continuous news format. ,onsider, for e.ample, the numer of older people in our listening area has increased
dramatically, while the total numer of our listeners has recently declined. Also, music stores in our area report
decreased sales of recorded music. +inally, continuous news stations in neighoring cities have een very
successful, and a survey ta$en 6ust efore the recent election shows that local citi)ens are interested in
ecoming etter informed aout politics.&
###############
"he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a local 5olano newspaper.
&"he 5olano school district should do away with its music education programs. After all, music programs are
not especially popular in our schools1 8nly 20 percent of our high school students participated in music
programs last year. +urthermore, very few of the 5olano district's college(ound students are interested in
ma6oring in music at the university level. Also, when the school district of our neighoring 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. 5urely the money spent on 5olano 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 2eauville newspaper.
&According to a government report, last year the city of 4illton reduced its corporate ta. rate y 1A percent? at
the same time, it egan offering relocation grants and favorale rates on city utilities to any company that would
relocate to 4illton. :ithin 1B months, two manufacturing companies moved to 4illton, where they employ a total
of 300 people. "herefore, the fastest way for 2eauville 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 9ira =ista ,ollege to the college's oard of
trustees.
&At neary 7reen 9ountain ,ollege, which has more usiness courses and more 6o counselors than does
9ira =ista ,ollege, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had 6o offers from prospective employers. 2ut
at 9ira =ista ,ollege last year, only C0 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they
would e see$ing employment had found full(time 6os within three months after graduation, and only half of
these graduates were employed in their ma6or field of study. "o help 9ira =ista's graduates find employment,
we must offer more courses in usiness and computer technology and hire additional 6o counselors to help
students with their resumKs and interviewing s$ills.&
###############
"he following appeared as an editorial in the local newspaper of 4alton.
&:hen the neighoring town of :illiamsville adopted a curfew four months ago that made it illegal for persons
under the age of 1B to loiter or idle in pulic places after 10 p.m., youth crime in :illiamsville dropped y 2C
percent during curfew hours. In :illiamsville'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 4alton should adopt the same $ind of curfew. A
curfew that $eeps young people at home late at night will surely control 6uvenile delin*uency and protect minors
from ecoming victims of crime.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo written y a dean at 2uc$ingham ,ollege.
&"o serve the housing needs of our students, 2uc$ingham ,ollege should uild a new dormitory. 2uc$ingham's
enrollment is growing and, ased on current trends, should doule over the ne.t fifty years, thus ma$ing
e.isting dormitories inade*uate. 9oreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has increased in
recent years. ,onse*uently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off(campus housing. +inally, an
attractive new dormitory would ma$e prospective students more li$ely to enroll at 2uc$ingham.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo at the HIO company.
&:hen HIO lays off employees, it pays 4elany /ersonnel +irm to offer those employees assistance in creating
resumKs and developing interviewing s$ills, if they so desire. Daid(off employees have enefited greatly from
4elany's services1 last year those who used 4elany found 6os much more *uic$ly than did those who did not.
%ecently, it has een proposed that we use the less(e.pensive :alsh /ersonnel +irm in place of 4elany. "his
would e a mista$e ecause eight years ago, when HIO was using :alsh, only half of the wor$ers we laid off
at that time found 6os within a year. 9oreover, 4elany is clearly superior, as evidenced y its igger staff and
larger numer of ranch offices. After all, last year 4elany's clients too$ an average of si. months to find 6os,
whereas :alsh's clients too$ nine.&
###############
"he following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of 7roveton ,ollege.
&"o comat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students, these
institutions should adopt honor codes similar to 7roveton's, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in
their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty memer if they suspect that others have cheated. 7roveton'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 successful1 in
the first year it was in place, students reported twenty(one cases of cheating? five years later, this figure had
dropped to fourteen. 9oreover, in a recent survey conducted y the 7roveton honor council, a ma6ority of
students said that they would e less li$ely to cheat with an honor code in place than without.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum written y the vice president of Nature's :ay, a chain of stores
selling health food and other health(related products.
&/revious e.perience has shown that our stores are most profitale in areas where residents are highly
concerned with leading healthy lives. :e should therefore uild our ne.t new store in /lainsville, which has
many such residents. /lainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and e.ercise clothing are at all(
time highs. "he local health clu, which nearly closed five years ago due to lac$ of usiness, has more
memers than ever, and the weight training and aeroics classes are always full. :e can even anticipate a
new generation of customers1 /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 4eerhaven Acres to all
homeowners in 4eerhaven Acres.
&5even years ago, homeowners in neary 2roo$ville community adopted a set of restrictions on how the
community's yards should e landscaped and what colors the e.teriors of homes should e painted. 5ince
then, average property values have tripled in 2roo$ville. In order to raise property values in 4eerhaven Acres,
we should adopt our own set of restrictions on landscaping and housepainting.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newspaper article aout law firms in the city of 9egalopolis.
&In 9egalopolis, the numer of law school graduates who went to wor$ for large, corporate firms declined y 1A
percent over the last three years, whereas an increasing numer of graduates too$ 6os at small, general
practice firms. 0ven though large firms usually offer much higher salaries, law school graduates are choosing
to wor$ for the smaller firms most li$ely ecause they e.perience greater 6o satisfaction at smaller firms. In a
survey of first(year students at a leading law school, most agreed with the statement that earning a high salary
was less important to them than 6o satisfaction. "his finding suggests that the large, corporate firms of
9egalopolis will need to offer graduates more enefits and incentives and reduce the numer of hours they
must wor$.&
###############
"he following was posted on an Internet real estate discussion site.
&8f the two leading real estate firms in our town # Adams %ealty and +itch %ealty # Adams is clearly
superior. Adams has M0 real estate agents. In contrast, +itch has 2A, many of whom wor$ only part(time.
9oreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of +itch, and included home sales that averaged
@1JB,000, compared to +itch's @1MM,000. <omes listed with Adams sell faster as well1 "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$ly and at a good price, you
should use Adams.&
###############
"he following appeared in the usiness section of a newspaper.
&7iven that the numer of people in our country with some form of arthritis is e.pected to rise from M0 million to
J0 million over the ne.t twenty years, pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs for the treatment of
arthritis should e very profitale. 9any analysts elieve that in ten years 2ecton /harmaceuticals, which
ma$es Henon, the est(selling drug treatment for arthritis, will e the most profitale pharmaceutical company.
2ut the patent on Henon e.pires in three years, and other companies will then e ale to produce a cheaper
version of the drug. "hus, it is more li$ely that in ten years the most profitale pharmaceutical company will e
/er$ins /harmaceuticals, ma$er of a new drug called Hylan, which clinical studies show is preferred over
Henon y seven out of ten patients suffering from the most e.treme cases of arthritis.&
###############
"he following was written as a part of an application for a small usiness loan y a group of developers in the
city of 9onroe.
&A 6a)) music clu in 9onroe would e a tremendously profitale enterprise. ,urrently, the nearest 6a)) clu is
JA miles away? thus, our proposed clu, the , Note, would have the local mar$et all to itself. /lus, 6a)) is
e.tremely popular in 9onroe1 over 100,000 people attended 9onroe's 6a)) festival last summer, several well(
$nown 6a)) musicians live in 9onroe, and the highest(rated radio program in 9onroe is '>a)) Nightly,' which
airs every wee$night. +inally, a nationwide study indicates that the typical 6a)) fan spends close to @1,000 per
year on 6a)) entertainment. It is clear that the , Note cannot help ut ma$e money.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the ,learview newspaper.
&In the ne.t mayoral election, residents of ,learview should vote for Ann 7reen, who is a memer of the 7ood
0arth ,oalition, rather than for +ran$ 2raun, a memer of the ,learview town council, ecause the current
memers are not protecting our environment. +or e.ample, during the past year the numer of factories in
,learview has douled, air pollution levels have increased, and the local hospital has treated 2A percent more
patients with respiratory illnesses. If we elect Ann 7reen, the environmental prolems in ,learview will certainly
e solved.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum issued y the strategic planning department at 8mni Inc.
&9esa +oods, a manufacturer of snac$ foods that currently mar$ets its products within a relatively small region
of the country, has strong growth potential. 9esa en6oyed a 20 percent increase in profits last year, and its
est(selling product, 4iaoli*ue 5alsa, has had increased sales over each of the past three years. 5ince 8mni
Inc. is interested in reaching 1M(to(2A year olds, the age group that consumes the most snac$ food, we should
uy 9esa +oods, and concentrate in particular on mar$eting 4iaoli*ue 5alsa throughout the country.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at 8mega -niversity.
&+ifteen years ago, 8mega -niversity implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the
teaching effectiveness of all their professors. 5ince that time, 8mega professors have egun to assign higher
grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at 8mega have risen y thirty percent. /otential
employers apparently elieve the grades at 8mega are inflated? this would e.plain why 8mega graduates have
not een as successful at getting 6os as have graduates from neary Alpha -niversity. "o enale its
graduates to secure etter 6os, 8mega -niversity should now terminate student evaluation of professors.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of a 2atavia newspaper.
&"he department of agriculture in 2atavia reports that the numer of dairy farms throughout the country is now
2A percent greater than it was 10 years ago. 4uring this same time period, however, the price of mil$ at the
local 0.cello +ood 9ar$et has increased from @1.A0 to over @3.00 per gallon. "o prevent farmers from
continuing to receive e.cessive profits on an apparently increased supply of mil$, the 2atavia government
should egin to regulate retail mil$ prices. 5uch 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 :est 0gg.
&"wo years ago, our consultants predicted that :est 0gg's landfill, which is used for garage disposal, would
e completely filled within five years. 4uring 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 garage pic$up will doule. +urthermore, over ninety percent of the
respondents to a recent survey said that they would do more recycling in the future. 2ecause of our residents'
strong commitment to recycling, the availale space in our landfill should last for consideraly longer than
predicted.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Alta 9anufacturing.
&4uring the past year, Alta 9anufacturing had thirty percent more on(the(6o accidents than neary /anoply
Industries, where the wor$ shifts are one hour shorter than ours. 0.perts elieve that a significant contriuting
factor in many on(the(6o accidents is fatigue and sleep deprivation among wor$ers. "herefore, to reduce the
numer of on(the(6o accidents at Alta and therey increase productivity, we should shorten each of our three
wor$ 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.
&:e have recently een offered the opportunity to uy the rights to produce a video game ased on the soon(
to(e(pulished children's oo$ '5*uirrel /ower,' y /eter :ood. :hile the cost of the rights is sustantial and
will place economic constraints on our company in the short(term, there are two reasons that the purchase of
these rights will undoutedly e a wise investment. +irst, :ood's last three oo$s have een est sellers and
the movie ased on his first oo$ was highly profitale. 5econd, the popular characters and story line in
'5*uirrel /ower' will save us time in developing our video game, therey reducing our costs.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the owner of 7reen "hum 7ardening ,enter, a small usiness
serving a suuran town.
&"here is evidence that consumers are ecoming more and more interested in growing their own vegetales. A
national survey conducted last month indicated that many consumers were dissatisfied with the *uality of fresh
vegetales availale in supermar$ets. And locally, the gardening maga)ine 7reat7ardens has sold out at the
=illage News stand three months in a row. "hus, we at 7reen "hum 7ardening ,enter can increase our
profits y greatly e.panding the variety of vegetale seeds we stoc$ for gardeners this coming spring.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter offering advice to investors.
&8ver B0 percent of the respondents to a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their inta$e of foods
containing fats and cholesterol, and today low(fat products aound in many food stores. 5ince many of the food
products currently mar$eted y 8ld 4airy Industries are high in fat and cholesterol, the company's sales are
li$ely to diminish greatly and their profits will no dout decrease. :e therefore advise 8ld 4airy stoc$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 neighoring state, Ducria, egan a state lottery to supplement ta. revenues for education
and pulic health. "oday, Ducria spends more per pupil than we do, and Ducria's pulic health program treats
far more people than our state's program does. If we were to estalish a state lottery li$e the one in Ducria, the
profits could e used to improve our educational system and pulic health program. "he new lottery would
doutless e successful, ecause a survey conducted in our capital city concludes that citi)ens of Impecunia
already spend an average of @A0 per person per year on gamling.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the :alnut 7rove town newspaper.
&:alnut 7rove's town council has advocated switching from 0O 4isposal Fwhich has had the contract for trash
collection services in :alnut 7rove for the past ten yearsG to A2, :aste, ecause 0O recently raised its
monthly fee from @2,000 to @2,A00 a month, whereas A2,'s fee is still @2,000. 2ut the town council is
mista$en? we should continue using 0O. 0O collects trash twice a wee$, while A2, collects only once.
9oreover, 0O # which, li$e A2,, currently has a fleet of 20 truc$s # has ordered additional truc$s. +inally, 0O
provides e.ceptional service1 B0 percent of respondents to last year's town survey agreed that they were
'satisfied' with 0O'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 AA miles per hour
to MA on all ma6or county roads. 2ut the AA mph limit should e restored, ecause this safety effort has failed.
9ost 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 $ind of road
improvement pro6ect that 2utler ,ounty completed five years ago1 increasing lane widths and resurfacing rough
roads. "oday, ma6or 2utler ,ounty roads still have a AA mph speed limit, yet there were 2A percent fewer
reported accidents in 2utler ,ounty this past year than there were five years ago.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter from the manager of a roc$ and named 4oule %ice.
&8ne year ago, tic$ets for 4oule %ice's concerts in stadiums around the country too$, on average, at least 2M
hours to sell out, if they sold out at all. 2ut the and has een en6oying a surge in nationwide popularity among
1M to 2A year olds, and the 30,000 tic$ets for a recent concert in 9egalopolis sold out in 12 minutes. ,learly the
tic$et sales in 9egalopolis are a result oth of the and's increased popularity and of the advertising campaign
run in 9egalopolis y the Ad Di advertising agency. "hus, in order to ensure that the and's success in
9egalopolis is repeated across the country, the and should hire Ad Di to duplicate the 9egalopolis ad
campaign on a nationwide scale.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the 2almer Island 7a)ette.
&"he population of 2almer Island increases to 100,000 duing the summer months. "o reduce the numer of
accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of 2almer Island should limit the numer of
mopeds rented y each of the island's si. moped and icycle rental companies from A0 per day to 30 per day
during the summer season. 2y limiting the numer of rentals, the town council is sure to attain the A0 percent
reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year in the neighoring 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 5artorian, a company that manufactures
men's clothing.
&+ive years ago, at a time when we had difficulties in otaining reliale supplies of high(*uality wool faric, we
discontinued production of our delu.e alpaca overcoats. Now that we have a new faric supplier, we should
resume production. "his coat should sell very well1 since we have not offered an alpaca overcoat for five years
and since our ma6or competitor no longer ma$es an alpaca overcoat, there will e pent(up customer demand.
Also, since the price of most types of clothing has risen in each of the past five years, customers should e
willing to pay significantly higher prices for alpaca overcoats than they did five years ago, and our company
profits will increase.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the president of a company that uilds and sells new homes in 5teel
,ity.
&8ver the past five years, the population of 5teel ,ity has increased y more than 20 percent, and family
incomes in 5teel ,ity have risen much faster than the national average. Nationwide, sales of houses priced
aove @1A0,000 have increased more than have sales of lower(priced houses. 5uch data indicate that we
should ma$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 aove @1A0,000.
5econd, we should hire additional wor$ers so that we can uild a larger total numer of houses than we did last
year.&
###############
A recent sales study indicated that consumption of seafood dishes in 2ay ,ity restaurants has increased y 30
percent over the past five years. Iet there are no currently operating city restaurants that speciali)e in seafood.
9oreover, the ma6ority of families in 2ay ,ity are two(income families, and a nationwide study has shown that
such families eat significantly fewer home(coo$ed meals than they did a decade ago ut at the same time
e.press more concern aout eating healthily. "herefore, a new 2ay ,ity restaurant speciali)ing in seafood will
e *uite popular and profitale.
###############
"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 assemly plants and uild a large central
plant. 7randview would e an ideal location for this new plant. +irst, of the locations that we have considered,
7randview has the largest adult population, so that we will e ale to staff our plant *uic$ly and easily. 5econd,
since the average wage earned y wor$ers in 7randview is less than that in the other locations, we should e
ale to $eep production costs low. Dast, as an inducement for us to uild there, 7randview's town council has
offered to allow us to operate for the first three years without paying city ta.es.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the mayor of the town of <opewell.
&"wo years ago, the town of 8cean =iew uilt a new municipal golf course and resort hotel. 4uring the past two
years, tourism in 8cean =iew has increased, new usinesses have opened there, and 8cean =iew's ta.
revenues have risen y 30 percent. "he est way to improve <opewell's economy, and generate additional ta.
revenues, is to uild a golf course and resort hotel similar to those in 8cean =iew.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the chairperson of the school oard in the town of 5aluda.
&+or the past five years, 9r. ,harles 5chade has een the music director at 5teel ,ity <igh 5chool, and during
that time the school and from 5teel ,ity <igh has won three regional and competitions. In addition, the
*uality of the music rehearsal facilities and musical instruments at 5teel ,ity <igh has improved mar$edly over
the past five years. 2ecause of such successes at 5teel ,ity <igh, the 5aluda school oard should hire 9r.
5chade to plan and direct the general music education programs for the entire 5aluda school system.&
###############
"he following appeared as part of a memo from the president of Automate, a company that manufactures
automoiles.
&It has come to my attention that 5par$s, Inc., the manufacturing company that 6ust moved into our state, is
advertising 6o openings at salaries that are twice as high as those paid to our e.perienced assemly(line
wor$ers. 5ome of our employees have already left to wor$ for 5par$s. In order to $eep our est staff, we must
pay them salaries e*ual to those 5par$s pays its employees. 8therwise we will continue to lose employees in
the future, ecause 5par$s must staff the additional new plants that it plans to uild in the state.&
###############
"he following is a memo from the superintendent of the 9ylar school district.
&A recent si.(month study, in which rea$fast was made availale 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 asent from or late
for school. ,learly, eating rea$fast efore school plays a role in reducing student asenteeism 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 asenteeism and tardiness and to improve academic performance in all of 9ylar's
elementary and secondary schools, we should provide rea$fasts for all students efore each school day.&
###############
:hen Ida 9cAllister ran for mayor of Da$e ,ity four years ago, she failed to win even 30 percent of the vote.
2ut since then, 9cAllister has made pulic her commitment to environmental causes. 5he would e wise,
therefore, to announce her intention to close all Da$e ,ity par$s to automoile traffic, thus following the
e.ample of the former mayor of /lainsville, Alecia Iu . 8n the recommendation of a small group of concerned
citi)ens, 9ayor Iu prohiited automoile traffic in all /lainsville par$s, and therefore was credited with solving
the pollution prolem and improving the *uality of life in /lainsville. "his action would have great appeal to the
citi)ens of Da$e ,ity, most of whom participate in the community's recycling program, and would guarantee
9cAllister's success in her current *uest to e Da$e ,ity's new mayor.
###############
According to information recently reported in the 0liottown 7a)ette, the numer of people who travel to
0liottown has increased significantly over the past several years. 5o far this year over 100,000 people have
arrived on flights to 0liottown's airport, compared with only B0,000 last year and M0,000 the year efore.
0liottown's train station has received more than A0,000 passengers this year, compared with less than M0,000
last year and 20,000 the year efore. ,learly tourism in 0liottown has een increasing, than$s to the new
,entral /ar$ and 9useum of 9odern 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.
&5ome states are creating new laws that restrict the use of handheld cell phones y drivers of automoiles.
5uch legislation, however, is sheer folly. Although some people with cell phones undoutedly cause prolems
on the road, including serious accidents, the ma6ority do not. 2esides, prolems are also caused y drivers who
are distracted y any numer of other activities, from listening to the radio to disciplining children. 5ince 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 6ournal.
&"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. 5ome 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$eletons can settle the deate1 high levels of a
certain metallic element contained in various foods are strongly associated with people who migrated to a new
place after childhood. 9any of the ones found near the pots at a few sites showed high levels of the metallic
element. "herefore, it must e that the pots were spread y migration, not trade.&
###############
9il$ and dairy products are rich in vitamin 4 and calcium, sustances essential for uilding and maintaining
ones. 9any 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. 2ut a long(term study of a large numer 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. 5ince 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 9entia.
&5alicylates are memers 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 numer 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. :ith this new use for salicylates, we can e.pect a continued steady decline in the
numer of headaches suffered y the average citi)en of 9entia.&
###############
"he following appeared in an article written y 4r. ;arp, an anthropologist.
&"wenty years ago 4r. +ield, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of "ertia and concluded from his
oservations 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$ing aout their iological parents than aout other adults in the village. "his
research proves that 4r. +ield's conclusion aout "ertian village culture is false, and thus that the oservation(
centered approach to studying cultures is invalid. 2ecause they are using the interview(centered method, my
team of graduate students wor$ing in "ertia will estalish a much more accurate understanding of child(rearing
traditions there and in other island cultures.&
###############
:oven 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 Dithos, an ancient
village across the 2rim%iver from /alea. "he 2rim%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 capale of
carrying groups of people and cargo were not developed until thousands of years after the /alean people
disappeared. 9oreover, /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$ets were not uni*ue to /alea.
###############
"he following memo appeared in the newsletter of the :est 9eria /ulic <ealth ,ouncil.
&An innovative treatment has come to our attention that promises to significantly reduce asenteeism in our
schools and wor$places. A study reports that in neary 0ast 9eria, where fish consumption is very high, people
visit the doctor only once or twice per year for the treatment of colds. ,learly, eating a sustantial amount of
fish can prevent colds. 5ince colds are the reason most fre*uently given for asences from school and wor$,
we recommend the daily use of Ichthaid, a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil, as a good way to
prevent colds and lower asenteeism.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of <umana ,ollege.
&Dast year the numer of students who enrolled in long(distance degree programs at 8mni- niversity increased
y A0L. 4uring the same year, 8mni showed a significant decrease from prior years in e.penditures for
dormitory and classroom space, most li$ely ecause instruction in the long(distance programs ta$es place via
interactive video computer connections. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at <umana ,ollege
has diminished and costs of maintaining uildings have risen. "hus, to increase enrollment and solve the
prolem of udget deficits at <umana ,ollege, we should initiate and actively promote long(distance degree
programs li$e those at 8mni.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memorandum from the president of 0.cello +ood 9ar$ets.
&In 90 towns where 0.cello has food mar$ets, natural(food stores speciali)ing in organic food products #
products containing no chemical preservatives and made with foods grown without pesticides # have opened
neary as competitors. 5urveys of our own customers reveal a growing concern aout foods grown using
pesticides or preserved with chemicals. %ecently our mar$et in 5un ,ity participated in a local food tasting fair,
and CA percent of the fair goers who visited the 0.cello ooth re*uested free samples of organic fruit. 5uch
evidence indicates that to increase our profits, we should egin to stoc$ a full line of organic food products in all
our mar$ets.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a food(distriution company with food(storage
warehouses in several cities.
&%ecently we signed a contract with "he +ly(Away /est(,ontrol ,ompany to provide pest(control services at
our fast(food warehouse in /alm ,ity, ut last month we discovered that over @20,000 worth of food there had
een destroyed y pest damage. 9eanwhile, the 2u))off /est(,ontrol ,ompany, which we have used for
many years, continued to service our warehouse in :intervale, and last month only @10,000 worth of the food
stored there had een destroyed y pest damage. 0ven though the price charged y +ly(Away is consideraly
lower, our est means of saving money is to return to 2u))off ,ompany for all our pest(control services.&
###############
"he following appeared in a proposal from the economic minister of the country of /araterra.
&In order to strengthen its lagging economy, last year the government of the neary country of 2ellegea egan
an advertising campaign to promote ecologically sound tourism FecotourismG. "his year, the numer of foreign
visitors arriving at 2ellegea's main airport douled, and per capita income in 2ellegea increased y ten percent.
"o provide more income for the population of /araterra and also preserve the natural environment of our tiny
country, we too should egin to promote ecotourism. "o ensure that our advertising campaign is successful, we
should hire the current director of 2ellegea's National "ourism 8ffice as a consultant for the campaign.&
###############
"he following appeared as part of a usiness plan developed y the manager of the %ialto "heater.
&4espite its downtown location, the %ialto 9ovie "heater, a local institution for five decades, must ma$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. :hen 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 BA 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 9onarch 2oo$s.
&9onarch 2oo$s should open a cafK in its store to attract more customers and etter compete with %egal
2oo$s, which recently opened a cafK. 9onarch, 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 su6ects.
8pening the cafK would clearly attract more customers. "he cafK would re*uire relatively little space. 5pace
could e made for the cafK y discontinuing the children's oo$ section, which will li$ely ecome less popular
given that the last national census indicated a significant decline in the percent of the population who are under
age ten.&
###############
"he following appeared as an editorial in a wildlife 6ournal.
&Arctic deer live on islands in ,anada's arctic region. "hey search for food y moving over ice from island to
island during the course of a year. "heir haitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which
they feed, and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands,
allowing the deer to travel over it. -nfortunately, according to reports from local hunters, the deer populations
are declining. 5ince these reports coincide with recent gloal warming trends that have caused the sea ice to
melt, we can conclude that the decline in arctic deer populations is the result of deer eing unale to follow
their age(old migration patterns across the fro)en sea.&
###############
Although lac$ ears are common in the eastern ,anadian province of Darador, gri))ly ears # often similar
in color, ut much larger # were elieved to e.ist only in the western provinces. 4espite a nineteenth(century
e.plorer's account of having startled and narrowly escaped from a gri))ly ear deep in the woods in Darador,
modern scientists find no physical evidence that gri))ly ears have ever lived in Darador. 2ut recent research
into the language and legends of the Innu, a people who have lived in Darador for thousands of years, reveals
that their language has words for two different $inds of ears, and their ancient legends attriute different
characteristics to the two $inds of ears. "herefore, there proaly were gri))ly ears in Darador, and the
e.plorer's account proaly accurately identified the ear.
###############
5cientists studying historical weather patterns have discovered that in the mid(si.th century, 0arth suddenly
ecame significantly cooler. Although few historical records survive from that time, some accounts found oth
in Asia and 0urope mention a dimming of the sun and e.tremely cold temperatures. 0ither a huge volcanic
eruption or a large meteorite colliding with 0arth could have created a large dust cloud throughout 0arth's
atmosphere that would have een capale of loc$ing enough sunlight to lower gloal temperatures
significantly. A large meteorite collision, however, would proaly create a sudden right flash of light, and no
e.tant historical records of the time mention such a flash. 5ome surviving Asian historical records of the time,
however, mention a loud oom that would e consistent with a volcanic eruption. "herefore, the cooling was
proaly caused y a volcanic eruption.
###############
"he following appeared in a newspaper article pulished 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. 2ut
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 numer of teenagers who sought medical help for these s$in
prolems has actually risen over the same period. In a recent study, teenagers who avoided greasy foods for a
month reported appro.imately as many outrea$s of acne and related s$in conditions as did those who ate an
average of two servings of greasy food per day. 5uch data indicate that eating greasy foods is unli$ely to e a
cause of acne and related s$in conditions. "herefore, health e.perts should no longer recommend that people
avoid such foods.&
###############
+rom a draft te.too$ manuscript sumitted to a pulisher.
&As 0arth was eing formed out of the collision of space roc$s, the heat from those collisions and from the
increasing gravitational energy of the planet made the entire planet molten, even the surface. Any water
present would have evaporated and gone off into space. As the planet approached its current si)e, however, its
gravitation ecame strong enough to hold gases and water vapor around it as an atmosphere. 2ecause comets
are largely ice made up of fro)en water and gases, a comet stri$ing 0arth 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 0arth. "herefore, the water in 0arth's oceans must have originated from comets.&
###############
"he following appeared in a medical newsletter.
&4octors 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 in6uries y 4r. Newland, a doctor who
speciali)es in sports medicine, too$ antiiotics regularly throughout their treatment. "heir recuperation time
was, on average, M0 percent *uic$er than typically e.pected. /atients in the second group, all eing treated y
4r. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients elieved they were ta$ing
antiiotics. "heir average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. "herefore, all patients who are
diagnosed with muscle strain would e well advised to ta$e antiiotics as part of their treatment. &
###############
"he following appeared in a memo to the human resources manager at 2aoo Inc., a large architectural firm.
&5everal well($nown, retired architects were interviewed in Architecture "oday aout changes in the field. 8nly
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. 5everal 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,
2aoo 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 2A 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 $nown to affect some rain functions # would naturally
increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow(up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of
these children # now teenagers # who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. ,learly,
increased levels of melatonin efore irth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later
life.
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter on dental health.
&A recent research study reported the e.perience of dentists whose patients had, over a period of five years,
regularly used +lu. 4ental +loss as part of their dental hygiene routine. "he report indicates that these dentists
had A0 percent fewer cases of gum disease than did dentists whose patients did not use +lu. regularly. In
addition, most of the +lu. users who were surveyed y their dentists agreed that +lu.'s mint flavor would
encourage people to floss more often. "hus, even though +lu. may cost more than other rands of floss, it is
clearly a worthwhile investment for those who want to e assured of healthy teeth and gums.&
###############
"he following appeared in a Detter to the 0ditor of the 5hady =illage newspaper.
&,ommuters are complaining that the rush hour traffic on 2lue <ighway etween 5hady =illage and 2right ,ity
has douled their commuting time. 5ome commuters have as$ed that an additional traffic lane e uilt, ut the
recent creation of such a lane on neary 7reen <ighway apparently attracted more commuters, 6udging from
the fact that rush(hour traffic 6ams actually increased there this past winter. "o reduce rush(hour traffic on 2lue
<ighway, a icycle lane should e added instead of a traffic lane. "his approach will succeed ecause many
citi)ens of 5hady =illage are avid icyclists? CA percent of respondents to a recent *uestionnaire distriuted
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 ale to depict odies with such realistic precision. 5ince 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 astract and entirely different in style1 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 Oora pill was designed as a simple dietary supplement, a study of first(time ulcer
patients who too$ Oora suggests that Oora actually helps prevent ulcers. "he study showed that only 2A
percent of those ulcer patients who too$ Oora under a doctor's direction developed new ulcers, compared to a
CA percent recurrence rate among ulcer patients who did not ta$e Oora. ,learly, then, Oora will e highly
effective in preventing recurrent ulcers and if health e.perts inform the general pulic of this fact, many first(
time ulcers can e prevented as well.&
###############
"he following appeared in an article from a popular newsmaga)ine.
&In 1BBB a stone was unearthed in northern :isconsin with an inscription in an old 5candinavian alphaet and
earing the date 13J2. 5candinavians were not, however, e.ploring or emigrating to northern :isconsin in the
fourteenth century. %ecent analysis proves, in fact, that the stone had een uried in the spot where it was
found for no more than 100 years. 9oreover, the community near the discovery site was home to a group of
people who had formed a clu to study medieval 5candinavian culture # a period that includes the fourteenth
century. "he stone, therefore, is not a genuine artifact of medieval 5candinavian culture inscried in the
fourteenth century ut most li$ely a hoa. perpetrated y the group.&
###############
"he following appeared in an article in the health section of a newspaper.
&According to the availale medical records, the si. worst worldwide flu epidemics during the past 300 years
occurred in 1C29, 1B30, 191B, 19AC, 19JB, and 19CC. "hese were all years with heavy sunspot activity # that
is, years when the 0arth received significantly more solar energy than in normal years. /eople at particular ris$
for the flu should therefore avoid prolonged e.posure to the 5un.&
###############
"he following appeared in the health section of 7lenntown's local newspaper.
&5everal national medical studies suggest that older people who have pets tend to en6oy etter health than
those who do not have pets1 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, 7lenntown
should estalish 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
JA. "his will help to insure that our senior citi)ens en6oy good health and have fewer medical ills.&
##############(
"he following appeared in a report y the 5chool 4istrict of 0yleria.
&Nationally, the average ratio of computers to students in $indergarten through grade 12 F;(12G is 11A.
0ducators indicate that this is very good ratio. "his means that across the country, all students have access to
and can use computers daily in their classrooms. In 0yleria's ;(12 schools, the ratio of computers to students is
11C. "his numer is sufficient to ensure that all of 0yleria's students, y the time they graduate from high
school, will e fully proficient in the use of computer technology. "hus, there is no reason to spend any of the
schools' udget on computers or other technology in the ne.t few years.&
##############(
"he "reasury has once again introduced a dollar coin, the /ine "ree dollar. Neither the /residential dollar coin,
introduced 11 years ago, nor the 0agle dollar coin, introduced 3 years ago, remained in circulation long1 people
simply preferred spending paper dollars. <owever, a survey conducted soon after its release indicates that the
/ine "ree dollar is far more appealing than other dollar coins1 CJ percent of respondents own the coin? J2
percent of those owning multiple coins consider it so attractive that they are still saving rather than spending
the most recent coin to come into their possession. 5ince the /ine "ree coin promises to ecome the dollar
currency of choice, the "reasury is correct to egin saving money y dramatically reducing the costly printing of
paper dollars.
###############
:hen 5tanley /ar$ 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 popularity1 the recordings showed an average of only A0 cars per day. In contrast, tiny ,arlton
/ar$ in the heart of the usiness district is visited y more than 1A0 people on a typical wee$day. An ovious
difference is that ,arlton /ar$, unli$e 5tanley /ar$, provides ample seating. "hus, if 5tanley /ar$ is ever to e
as popular with our citi)ens as is ,arlton /ar$, the town will oviously need to provide more enches, therey
converting some of the unused open areas into spaces suitale for sociali)ing.
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the 4ean of the ,ollege of 0ducation at 8mni 5tate -niversity.
&8nly seven of our state's high schools offer even one course in Datin, ut over B0 percent of the graduates
who study Datin at those seven schools enroll in college. +urthermore, a recent study shows that students who
have mastered Datin perform much etter in logic and critical thin$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$ing, 8mni 5tate -niversity should egin an intensive program to prepare our
future teachers to teach high school Datin.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the president of a chain of cheese stores located throughout the
-nited 5tates.
&+or many years all the stores in our chain have stoc$ed a wide variety of oth domestic and imported
cheeses. Dast year, however, the five est(selling cheeses at our newest store were all domestic cheddar
cheeses from :isconsin. +urthermore, a recent survey y ,heeses of the :orld maga)ine indicates an
increasing preference for domestic cheeses among its suscriers. 5ince 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 5tates, where winters are typically cold, have traditionally used oil as their
ma6or fuel for heating. Dast year that region e.perienced 90 days with elow(average temperatures, and
climate forecasters at :aymarsh -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. 2ecause of these
developments, we predict an increased demand for heating oil and recommend investment in ,onsolidated
Industries, one of whose ma6or 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.
&2oth the villages of ,astorville and /ollu.ton have e.perienced sharp declines in the numers of residents
who pay property ta.es. "o save money and improve service, the two villages recently merged their once
separate garage collection departments into a single department located in ,astorville, and the new
department has reported few complaints aout its service. Dast year the lirary 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 garage collection, y closing the lirary in /ollu.ton and using the lirary in ,astorville
to serve oth villages.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from a udget planner for the ,ity of 7randview.
&"o avoid a udget deficit ne.t year, the ,ity of 7randview must eliminate its funding for the 7randview
5ymphony. 8ur citi)ens are well aware of the fact that while the 7randview 5ymphony 8rchestra was
struggling to succeed, our city government promised annual funding to help support its programs. Dast year,
however, private contriutions to the 5ymphony increased y 200 percent, and attendance at the 5ymphony's
concerts(in(the(par$ series douled. "he 5ymphony has also announced an increase in tic$et prices for ne.t
year. 5uch developments indicate that the 5ymphony can now succeed without funding from city government
and we can eliminate that e.pense from ne.t year's udget. "his action will surely prevent a udget deficit.&
###############
Iellow(legged frogs were once common in high(altitude la$es in the 5ierra Nevada mountains, ut they have
ecome increasingly rare. "rout feed on tadpoles and young frogs. +ew la$es in the 5ierra Nevada had any
trout in them until a hundred years ago. At that time, many la$es were stoc$ed with trout for recreational fishing,
and now trout are common in virtually all odies of water in the 5ierra Nevada. %esearchers removed the trout
from one la$e, and the frog population soon *uadrupled. 5ince frogs are capale of moving several miles over
land, removing trout from 6ust a few la$es is clearly the way to restore the frog population to its former levels.
###############
5tudies show that in C0 percent of traffic accidents, at least one driver involved is less than 10 miles from home
when the accident occurs. "his statistic indicates that drivers have a tendency to drive incautiously when they
are close to home, proaly ecause familiar surroundings give them a false sense of security. "hus, the
places where people feel safest are the places where they are in fact at greatest ris$ of serious in6ury.
###############
,opper occurs in nature mi.ed with other minerals and valuale metals in ore, and the proportion of copper in
the ore can vary consideraly. -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 M0 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 descrie
themselves as generally happy have more activity in the left prefrontal loe of their rains than do other people.
"herefore, a medication for stimulating the left prefrontal loe 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 availale in our country of 9ohilia as an alternative to outright
car ownership, and leasing has steadily risen in popularity. +or each of the last five years, the numer of people
leasing new cars has surpassed the numer uying new cars. "he average age of cars driven in 9ohilia is si.
years? hence, if new car leases again outnumer purchases this year, it is li$ely that the ma6ority of drivers will
e driving leased, not individually owned, cars. "herefore, we should change the focus of our usiness from
selling cars to leasing them.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter aout education policy.
'"he average annual earnings of high school dropouts are significantly less than the average annual earnings
of high school graduates. "o address this prolem, the state governor has proposed that the state should
estalish free vocational training programs for high school dropouts. 2ut the availaility of such programs would
proaly encourage some students who would otherwise have graduated to drop out in order to pursue
vocational training. <ence the proposed programs would lower, not raise, the average earning potential of
young people. "herefore, the state should not estalish the vocational training programs ut should instead
focus on improving academic programs in our high schools.'
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter aout health.
&"he proportion of children in the -nited 5tates who are overweight is greater now than ever efore. 8esity
rates among children have een increasing since the 19C0's and, during that same time period, the proportion
of children living in suurs has increased. :hereas children in rural areas tend to have outdoor active chores
and children in cities often wal$ to school or other places they need to go, children in suurs are typically
driven everywhere. "hus the increase in childhood oesity is proaly due mainly to the suurani)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 Du.ess face cream. 0very
morning for a month, they washed their faces with mild soap and then applied Du.ess. At the end of that month,
most volunteers reported a mar$ed improvement in the way their s$in loo$ed and felt. "hus it appears that
Du.ess is truly effective in improving the condition of facial s$in.&
###############
"he cities of 0ast 5acunda and :est 5acunda are in an earth*ua$e(prone area. 5ince 19BA oth cities have
had stringent uilding codes re*uiring all new uildings to have specific features designed to prevent damage
in an earth*ua$e. 2uildings uilt efore 19BA are e.empt from the codes, ut many uilding owners have
modified their uildings to ma$e them conform to the 19BA codes. Dast year a ma6or earth*ua$e hit the area,
and many people lost their homes. "he numer of people who were left homeless was much higher in 0ast
5acunda than in :est 5acunda, however, so we can conclude that uilding owners in 0ast 5acunda were less
li$ely to modify their uildings so as to ring them up to the 19BA code standards.
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of an archaeological maga)ine.
&Archaeologists e.cavated a cave that had een inhaited 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
haitation. 9ost of the ones at the oldest levels, over M0,000 years old, were from a deer species whose
modern(day descendants are $nown to prefer woodland haitats, 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 $nown to prefer grasslands. :e can thus conclude that the climate of the area changed dramatically
etween M0,000 and 30,000 years ago, causing the terrain to change from woodland to grassland.&
###############
"he following appeared in a maga)ine for the truc$ing industry.
&"he Donghaul truc$ing company was concerned that its annual accident rate Fthe numer of accidents per mile
drivenG was too high. It granted a significant pay increase to its drivers and increased its training standards. It
also put strict limits on the numer of hours per wee$ each driver could drive. "he following year, its truc$s
were involved in half the numer of accidents as efore the changes were implemented. A survey of other
truc$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 numer of hours they drive.&
###############
"he following appeared as an editorial in a health maga)ine.
&,lormium A 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 A 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
A. Although it is possile to remove clormium A 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 A should replace drin$ing fountains in
pulic uildings, such as schools and liraries, with ottled(water coolers.&
###############
Allergies are an overreaction of the immune system to certain stimuli. 8ne view is that allergies can develop as
the result of childhood e.posure to certain irritants, such as dust or animal dander, while the immune system is
not yet mature. Another view is that e.posure to particular acteria early in childhood actually triggers the
proper development of the immune system, and that limiting e.posure to these acteria through e.cessive
hygiene can cause children's immune systems to overreact to certain irritants later on. A new study supports
the second view1 children who are washed especially fre*uently and whose parents clean their homes
especially fre*uently are more li$ely to develop allergies than are other children. 5o 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 prolems, and e.tensive use of wood causes deforestation, a ma6or environmental
prolem. In contrast, charcoal, made y partially urning wood in a controlled process, is a fuel that creates
less smo$e than wood does. 9oreover, although charcoal costs slightly more than wood, less charcoal is
needed to produce the same amount of heat. "herefore, people who use wood as their primary fuel can,
without e.periencing economic hardship, switch to charcoal and can therey improve their health and preserve
the environment.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the usiness manager of 9edicine, Inc., a local drugstore.
&9ost usiness analysts for the drugstore industry have stated that even when a nation's economy is wea$,
drugstores' profits are unli$ely to decline apprecialy. :hile consumers might put off some $inds of purchases
when the economy is slow, prescription and over(the(counter drug purchases are dictated y consumers'
health needs, which are independent of the economy. "herefore, 9edicine Inc. is li$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 7orham 5chool.
&8ur school cafeteria should ma$e changes in the lunches that it serves in order to improve the health of our
students. 5everal teachers and I have oserved that students who eat these meals tend to eat the main course
and the dessert, ut seldom finish the vegetale portion. "his pattern means that students are missing the vital
nutritional enefits of fruits and vegetales, which are typically rich in vitamins and minerals. "herefore, the
school cafeteria should serve larger fruit and vegetale portions along with smaller main course and dessert
portions. "his change will e effective ecause, according to research conducted at the %ose ,hildren's
<ospital, children eat the same amount of food served to them # aout AA percent, on average # no matter
what the main course is.&
###############
"he following appeared in the letter to an editor of a 9yrian newspaper.
&-nder 7overnor :inslow's leadership over the past four years, 9yria has en6oyed unprecedented prosperity.
Average wage increases this year are higher than they have een at any time since the 19C0's, the numer of
people who report eing unemployed has decreased y 10 percent, and construction of new homes is up y
one third. In contrast, over the past four years 7overnor :inslow's opponent, 9r. <omer, has een mayor of a
city in which only a small numer of new usinesses have opened. If 9yrians want another four years li$e the
past four years, they should reelect 7overnor :inslow.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from a memer of the ,lar$ ,ity 5chool 2oard.
&9ason 0lementary 5chool 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 ailities.
"herefore, we should reduce the numer of physical education classes at 9ason 0lementary 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$ills.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo to managers of ,hristine's, a chain of craft stores.
&5everal ma6or newspapers have recently run articles noting an increased interest in pottery. "he numer of
potters in this country has risen y eighteen percent in the past five years, and pottery is particularly gaining
popularity on college campuses. In order to ta$e advantage of these trends, ,hristine's should immediately
egin carrying a larger volume of pottery supplies. 5ince 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. 5tores should display posters showing pottery that is designed to appeal to college(
age individuals. "hese actions will undoutedly increase our profits dramatically.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter aout health pulished in the country of 5auria.
&According to 5auria's leading nutritional e.perts, a diet high in comple. carohydrates, and low in fat is optimal
for good health and longevity. 2ecause this was the diet of the people who lived in ancient 5auria, one would
e.pect them to have had long and healthy lives. Iet the mummified remains of 5auria's ruling classes from two
to three thousand years ago show the e.istence of many medical prolems among the ancient 5aurians,
including dental prolems, elevated lood pressure, oesity, heart disease, and early mortality. ,learly, the diet
of the ancient 5aurians was responsile for these prolems. "he high incidence of high lood pressure,
oesity, and heart disease in 5auria today even among those who have tried low(fat, high(carohydrate diets
further proves that 5auria's leading nutritional e.perts are wrong.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newspaper pulished in the state of ,elera.
&5peed limits on our state's highways should e eliminated in order to increase our state's prosperity. 2ecause
greater speed means more efficient travel, commercial deliveries will e faster, increasing usiness profits.
0limination of speed limits will also ma$e driving more attractive to motorists, so that more people will use the
highways, providing more highway toll revenues for the state. At the same time, safety on our highways will not
e affected1 daytime speed limits were eliminated last year in the western states of our country, and no
significant increase in the numer of accidents in these states has een reported.&
###############
"he following appeared in an editorial on health prolems in the country of ,orpora.
&5ome pharmacies now feature ultrasound machines that screen for an elevated ris$ of stro$e. +or a fee, a
technician presses a proe against the nec$ 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 A to 20 percent of clients have detectale
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 5upplements "oday.
&4ieticians have long $nown that professional athletes who eat a lot of nuts have higher levels of endurance
than those who do not. %esearchers have recently discovered that the particular comination of vitamin N and
fier found in some nuts provides a oost for those who participate in strenuous physical activities daily. 2oth
vitamin N and fier supplements are easily synthesi)ed and widely availale. As a result, all those who
participate in athletic activities will e ale to increase their endurance and win more games y ta$ing vitamin N
along with a fier supplement.&
###############
"he following is a recommendation from the human resources department at "echforce ,omputer ,ompany.
&9any wor$ing parents report that prolems related to their childcare arrangements are a ma6or reason for
asenteeism from their 6os. 2ridgewell ,orporation, a tele(communications company, implemented an on(site
childcare program and after one year, the company reported that unscheduled asences had declined y 2A
percent. 5ince "echforce has had an increase in unscheduled employee asences over the past year, we
should therefore implement our own on(site childcare program. "he program will undoutedly reduce our
unscheduled employee asences, resulting in significantly increased productivity.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from a vice president of a large, highly diversified company.
&"en years ago our company had two new regional office uildings uilt in two different regions. "he uildings
were erected y two different construction companies # Alpha and Oeta. 0ven though the two uildings had
virtually identical floor plans, the uilding constructed y Oeta cost 30 percent more to uild, and its e.penses
for maintenance last year were twice those of the uilding constructed y Alpha. +urthermore, the energy
consumption of the Oeta uilding has een higher than that of the Alpha uilding every year since its
construction. 5uch data, plus the fact that Alpha has a stale wor$force with little employee turnover, indicate
that we should use Alpha ,onstruction ,ompany, rather than Oeta, for all future uilding pro6ects.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the president of 2ower 2uilders, 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 neary development uilt y our competitor, 4omus ,onstruction, have whirlpool
tus and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the average. "o increase our sales and
profits, we should include whirlpool tus and larger $itchens as standard features in all our new homes. 5ince
our recent uyers have voiced no complaints aout small yards, we can also increase profits y decreasing the
si)e of our yards.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from a udget planner in 5ophia ,ounty.
&,ensus data indicate that the numer of retired couples without children who are moving into 5ophia ,ounty is
steadily rising? private schools in our county report sustantial increases in enrollment? and a statewide survey
of parents shows that over 10 percent now support the idea of home schooling instead of pulic schooling
funded y the county government. 5uch demographic trends suggest that our county will not have to construct
new school uildings and that we can therefore decrease the udget for county(funded pulic schools.&
###############
"he following appeared in a maga)ine focusing on health and fitness.
&A recent study of several nutritional supplements showed that su6ects who too$ a daily pill containing luceen
had significantly etter vision of distant o6ects than su6ects in the study who too$ other nutritional
supplements. Duceen appears naturally in a tasty fruit that grows on the island of 2onopia, and very few
inhaitants of that island wear eyeglasses or other corrective lenses. 5uch evidence suggests that people who
develop vision prolems should ta$e regular luceen supplements.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the manager of television station ;I,;.
&A nationwide survey reveals that a si)eale ma6ority of men would li$e to see additional sports programs on
television. After television station :A,; increased its sports roadcasts, its share of the television audience in
its viewing area almost douled. "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 laoratory study of li*uid antiacterial hand soaps, a concentrated solution of Nadasept $illed M0 percent
more acteria than the li*uid hand soaps currently used in our hospitals. 4uring a suse*uent test of Nadasept
at our hospital in 5aluda, that hospital reported significantly fewer cases of patient infection than did any of the
other hospitals in our group. "herefore, to prevent serious patient infections, we should supply Nadasept at all
hand washing stations throughout our hospital system.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the economic minister of the small country /aucia.
&-sing a newly developed variety of seed, farmers in our neighoring country Aundia produced B0 percent
more rice last year than in any previous year. "o increase the income of farmers in our own country, we should
encourage them to cultivate this new variety of rice rather than some of their traditional crops. 5uch high yields
of rice will also improve our country's alance of trade y enaling us to egin e.porting it.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the chief operating officer of the /resto 9anufacturing ,ompany.
&5ince orders for our ma6or product increased y over 200 percent last *uarter, we should promptly e.pand
production y uilding a new manufacturing plant in 5ummit ,ity. 5ummit ,ity is the ideal location for the new
plant ecause it has low property ta.es, e.tensive loc$s of land availale for immediate purchase, and a large
numer 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, su6ects who ate soyeans at least five times per wee$ had significantly lower cholesterol
levels than su6ects who ate no soy products. 2y fortifying our :heat(8 cereal with soy protein, we can
increase sales y appealing to additional consumers who are concerned aout their health. "his new version of
:heat(8 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 ma6or airline chose Ior$ville as its regional flight hu, the numer of usinesses in that city almost
douled and local ta. revenue increased y A0 percent. In addition, as travel to Ior$ville ecame easier, most
respondents to a survey of the country's top e.ecutives identified Ior$ville as a desirale place to transact
usiness. "o secure efficient transportation for "udor ,ity and stimulate our local economy, we should uild a
new airport, li$e the one in Ior$ville, that is suitale for a regional flight hu.&
###############
2lue ,ity <ighway had always een notorious for its tight curves and poor roadway visiility, and the accident
rate there was generally very high. Dast year the highway was redesigned to roaden the curves and improve
roadway visiility. 4rivers report that they now feel much safer driving on the highway and that the redesign has
een a ig improvement. 2ut the numer of accidents on the highway has not een significantly lower in the si.
months since the redesign than it was in the si. months efore the redesign. "herefore, the redesign clearly did
not improve the curves and roadway visiility enough to ma$e a difference.
###############
8ne $ind of rain(scanning device is used y doctors to monitor normal as well as anormal 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$es a very loud noise. -nder these uncomfortale conditions, it is doutful that
doctors can get accurate measurements. A new head(mounted device that measures eye movements rather
than lood flow and allows patients to move around will undoutedly provide etter rain measurements. "hus,
the new head(mounted device should replace the older device at all hospitals and research institutions.
###############
"he following appeared in a health newsletter.
&According to a recent study, people with many social ties report catching colds less often than do people with
few social ties. ,onse*uently, researchers conclude that having an active social life proaly helps strengthen
the immune system. "he researchers note that catching a cold # one of a family of highly contagious viruses
# gives the cold(sufferer temporary immunity to that virus in the future, ut not to the many other related
viruses. 9erely eing e.posed to a new cold virus, however, is not enough for a person to catch a cold, since a
strong immune system can successfully fight off some new viruses. "hus, in order to prevent catching a cold,
people should strengthen their immune systems y ecoming more active socially.&
###############
"he following editorial appeared in a newspaper in the country of 5olaria.
&"he 0liot =alley region was primarily agricultural twenty years ago. In the past twenty years, however, many
computer(chip manufacturers have opened factories there. A recent study found that water pollution in the
region was worse than in any other region in the country. 9oreover, the computer(chip factories, which use
large *uantities of water to manufacture the chips, are proaly responsile for the low levels of water in the
region's la$es and reservoirs. "herefore, if the region's computer(chip ma$ers had limits placed on the amount
of water they could use, water *uality would improve.&
###############
"he following appeared in an editorial in the 5eatown newspaper.
&5eatown has a large port e.clusively for fishing oats, whose owners pay fees for the up$eep of the doc$s and
for facilities for cleaning engines and repairing nets. In recent years, declining fish populations have decreased
fishing revenue and forced many owners to stop fishing altogether. As a result, the port has a high vacancy rate
and port managers are considering allowing pleasure oats, including cruise ships and other large vessels, to
use the port in order to increase revenue. 2ut allowing pleasure oats into the port would e a mista$e,
ecause the fishing oats would e forced out of the port. :e should preserve the port for the fishing fleet,
which, unli$e pleasure oats, contriutes to the prosperity of 5eatown.&
###############
"he following appeared in a 2renton newspaper.
&"he 2renton power plant draws water from 5cott's %iver for its cooling system and releases the warmed water
ac$ 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 scruing the pipes, which is costly, or y adding an hericide to the water in the
pipes to prevent algae accumulation. 2ut water containing the hericide cannot e released ac$ into the river
and it is $nown that low water levels can harm river ecosystems accustomed to higher levels. "herefore,
2renton power plant should continue to use the old cooling system e.clusively.&
###############
"he following appeared in a letter to the editor of the 9aple ,ity newspaper.
&"wenty years ago /ine ,ity estalished strict laws designed to limit the numer of new uildings that could e
constructed in the city. 5ince that time the average housing prices in /ine ,ity have increased consideraly.
,hestnut ,ity, which is aout the same si)e as /ine ,ity, has over the past twenty years e.perienced an
increase in average housing prices similar to /ine ,ity, ut ,hestnut ,ity never estalished any laws that limit
new uilding construction. 5o it is clear that laws limiting new construction have no effect on average housing
prices. 5o if 9aple ,ity were to estalish strict laws that limit new uilding construction, these laws will have no
effect on average housing prices.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the /rincipal of 5herwood >unior <igh 5chool.
&It appears that the lighting in 5herwood <igh's classrooms, which have large windows ut minimal overhead
light sources, is impairing student academic performance and teacher morale. %ecords show that during
4ecemer and >anuary, the two months with the fewest hours of daylight, attendance rates fall, average daily
class participation drops, and grades decline. "eacher resignations are also highest during these months.
According to a study of "undra =ocational 5chool, which e.periences entire seasons with little daylight,
students' grade point averages increased when 4ay 7low light uls, which mimic sunlight, were installed in
classrooms. "his study suggests that 5herwood can improve students' academic performance and teachers'
morale y using 4ay 7low light uls in winter.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from the vice president of mar$eting at 4ura(5oc$, Inc.
&A recent study of 4ura(5oc$ wearers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its
patented '0ndure' manufacturing process, which ensures that our soc$s are strong enough to last for two years.
4ura(5oc$ has always advertised its use of the '0ndure' process, ut the new study shows that the average
4ura(5oc$ customer actually purchases new 4ura(5oc$s every three months. +urthermore, 4ura(5oc$
customers surveyed in our largest mar$et, northeastern -nited 5tates cities, say that they most value 4ura(
5oc$'s stylish appearance and availaility in many colors. "hese findings suggest that 4ura(5oc$ can increase
its profits y discontinuing its use of the '0ndure' 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 2ay ,oalition
organi)ation o6ects that filling in the ay will disrupt tidal patterns and harm wildlife. 2ut 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 pulished y a consumer protection agency.
&"hree years ago, 5o(Dow launched a nationwide ad campaign, focusing heavily on sunny regions and
distriuting free sunglasses there. 2ut although 5o(Dow sunglasses cost less than higher(priced rands, they
loc$ a smaller proportion of the 5un's rays, including the type of rays $nown to damage the eyes even when
the person wearing the sunglasses feels no discomfort. A recent study suggests that 5o(Dow sunglasses can
actually increase the ris$ of damage to people's eyes y creating a false sense of security. "he study shows a
sharp increase in the incidence of vision prolems in the sunny regions over the past three years. "hese
findings suggest that anyone concerned aout eye damage from the 5un should avoid 5o(Dow 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 Fthat is, uildings
without elevatorsG 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$e, on average, twice as
many visits to doctors each year as do elderly residents of uildings without elevators. "hese findings suggest
that even a very moderate amount of daily e.ercise, such as that re*uired to use the stairs leading to and from
one's apartment, can increase people's health and longevity. "he findings also suggest that new apartment
uildings should e constructed with as few elevators as possile.
###############
"he following appeared in a clothing industry trade 6ournal in the country of 5artoria.
&A popular fashion maga)ine recently conducted a survey of consumers' opinions aout clothing prices, using
prepaid mailing envelopes. 0ighty(nine percent of the appro.imately 20,000 respondents reported that they
were either 'dissatisfied' or 'very dissatisfied' with current clothing prices. "he large numer of responses
indicates that the 5artorian clothing industry is at ris$. 7iven the survey results, clothing manufacturers must
find a way to reduce prices in order to $eep their e.isting customers and maintain their usinesses.&
###############
"he following appeared in a memo from 7rocery "own's regional manager.
&"he new 7rocery "own store in 0lm ,ity, located near a new residential development, has a 'high(low' pricing
policy where average prices are relatively high, ut deep discounts are offered on some items in wee$ly
specials. "his store has een showing increased profits every month as the neary residential development
gets closer to full capacity. It follows that people prefer a pricing policy where they can find argains on specific
items. 5ince there is a new residential development planned in 8a$ ,ity, we should change the pricing policy at
all of our 8a$ ,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 8a$ ,ity.&
###############
"he following is a memo from the usiness manager of =alu(9art stores.
&8ver C0 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$place than they were in the past. 5ince =alu(9art has not seen impressive sales in its
office(supply departments in the past, we should ta$e advantage of this wor$(at(home trend y increasing at all
=alu(9art stores the stoc$ of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders,
and fa. machines. :e will also increase stoc$ of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. :ith these
changes, our office(supply departments will ecome the most profitale 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
5un ,ity, the traditional location of our yearly winter conference. <igher winter temperatures are sure to result
in higher(than(usual tourism in 5un ,ity, a location already $nown for its attractive eaches and good weather.
<otels will have fewer rooms availale, transportation will e more difficult to reserve, and pulic places such
as par$s and restaurants will e more crowded. "hese conditions are li$ely to significantly reduce attendance at
the conference. :e should therefore move our conference to a city less popular with winter tourists.&
###############
"he following is a letter to the editor of the :aymarsh "imes.
&"raffic prolems here in :aymarsh are oviously reaching record levels. :hile 6ust three months ago it would
ta$e me 1A minutes to get to wor$, it now ta$es closer to 2A. :aymarsh should follow the e.ample of our
neighoring city 7earsville. Dast year, 7earsville implemented a policy that rewards people who share rides to
wor$ with coupons for free gas. /ollution levels in 7earsville have dropped since the policy was implemented,
and several friends who live in 7earsville tell me that their trip to wor$ is *uic$er than it used to e. :ith the
terrile traffic and high pollution in :aymarsh, we must implement a policy similar to 7earsville's.&
###############
"he following appeared in a health newsletter.
&A ten(year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while icycling indicates that ten years
ago, appro.imately 3A percent of all icyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that numer is nearly
B0 percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten(year period, the numer of accidents
caused y icycling has increased 200 percent. "hese results demonstrate that icyclists feel safer ecause
they are wearing helmets and they ta$e more ris$s as a result. "hus, to reduce the numer of serious in6uries
from icycle accidents, the government should concentrate more on educating people aout icycle safety and
less on encouraging or re*uiring icyclists to wear helmets.&
###############
"he following is a memo from the president of ,yerell ,omputer ,ompany.
&All of our customer(service employees recently attended a two(day retreat during which they received
retraining in effective customer service. 5use*uently, ,yerell's employee(performance study showed that the
retreat enefited new employees # those who have wor$ed with ,yerell for less than two years # far more
than it did e.perienced employees. According to the study, after the retreat new employees were ale to handle
an average of ten percent more calls per hour, and the total numer of customer complaints aout new
employees decreased, ut e.perienced employees showed little improvement in these areas. "herefore,
,yerell should send only new employees to future retreats and should use the resulting savings to doule the
length of the retreats so that the retreats will e more li$ely to yield optimum employee performance.&
###############
"he following appeared in the /ine ,ity 7a)ette.
&+ifteen years ago, /ine ,ity launched an electricity(conservation program that reimursed residents some of
the cost for replacing energy(wasteful motors, home office e*uipment, and home appliances with energy(
efficient ones. +or ten years, spending on this program increased annually, and annual total energy
consumption declined. 2ut spending on the program egan to decline five years ago, and since then /ine
,ity's total electricity consumption has increased sharply. If this increased usage continues, the city will have to
uild a costly new power plant. 8viously the est way to avoid this e.pense is to increase reimursement to
residents for replacing energy(wasteful e*uipment. "his will reduce energy usage to the levels of five years
ago.&
###############
"he following appeared in a health newsletter.
&0ating a heavy meal may increase the ris$ of heart attac$. A recent survey of 2,000 people who had had a
heart attac$ revealed that 1AB of them said they had eaten a heavy meal within 2M hours efore their heart
attac$, and 2A of them said they had eaten a heavy meal within 2 hours efore their heart attac$. 0ating and
digesting food releases hormones into the loodstream and temporarily increases heart rate and lood
pressure slightly. 2oth 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 4aily News.
&"o e.pand the home delivery service of our national newspaper, we should concentrate on the state of -ra
rather than on the state of 5ylva. +irst, the population of 5ylva 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. 5econd, a
long(term study of television viewing haits suggests that 5ylvans 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 -ra receive more coverage in our newspaper than do events in 5ylva, we can e.pect -rans to e
more interested in reading our newspaper.&
###############
"he following is a recommendation from the president of Appley ,ollege.
&:hereas Appley ,ollege holds class reunions every five years, 0delston ,ollege holds annual reunions for
all classes, during which 0delston's alumni are treated to an*uets, lectures, and student performances,
enhancing their loyalty to the college and their willingness to donate money. 0delston ,ollege receives most of
its alumni donations during or shortly after these reunions. "herefore, the est way for Appley 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. 2ut a recent si.(
year study of adult sleeping haits found that people who reported sleeping eight or more hours a night had a
higher rate of certain health prolems 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 prolems, 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 aout 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$stations. 0mployees who use the Internet from their wor$stations need to e
identified and punished if we are to reduce the numer of wor$ hours spent on personal or recreational
activities, such as shopping or playing games. 2y 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 7arden ,ity 7a)ette.
&"o address the par$ing prolems in our downtown usiness district, it has een proposed that the city
increase par$ing capacity y uilding a four(story par$ing garage. <owever, this pro6ect would cost more than it
would to improve the downtown pedestrian pla)a. 2ecause the pedestrian pla)a is an important attraction that
draws people to the downtown area, improvements to it will increase usiness for downtown merchants. "he
merchants' higher profits will ultimately produce increased ta. revenues for the city. "herefore, we should
invest in the pla)a improvements first and then use the revenues thus generated to pay for the construction of
the par$ing garage.&
###############
"he following appeared in the 5herwood "imes newspaper.
&A recent study reported that pet owners have longer, healthier lives on average than do people who own no
pets. 5pecifically, dog owners tend to have a lower incidence of heart disease. In light of these findings,
5herwood <ospital should form a partnership with 5herwood Animal 5helter 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 numer of these patients needing ongoing treatment. In addition, the
pulicity aout 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 1J 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$e improvements themselves, as opposed to paying someone else.
"hese factors comined indicate we can e.pect an increasing demand for products in all our stores nationwide,
thus increasing our profits in the coming year.&
###############
"he following appeared in an environmental newsletter pulished in "ria Island.
&"he marine sanctuary on "ria Island was estalished to protect certain marine mammals. Its regulations an
dumping and offshore oil drilling within 20 miles of "ria, ut fishing is not anned. ,urrently many fish
populations in "ria's waters are declining, a situation lamed on pollution. In contrast, the marine sanctuary on
8mni Island has regulations that an dumping, offshore oil drilling, and fishing within 10 miles of 8mni and
8mni reports no significant decline in its fish populations. ,learly, the decline in fish populations in "ria's waters
is the result of overfishing, not pollution. "herefore, the est way to restore "ria's fish populations and to protect
all of "ria's marine wildlife is to aandon our regulations and adopt those of 8mni.&
###############
"he following appeared in an editorial in the local newspaper of :or$ville.
&:or$ers should e allowed to reduce their wor$load from M0 to 2A 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. 8ne store in
:or$ville, which egan allowing its employees to wor$ part(time last year, reports that fewer days of sic$ leave
were ta$en last year than in previous years. In contrast, the factory in :or$ville, which does not allow any of its
employees to wor$ part(time, had a slight increase in the numer of days of sic$ leave ta$en last year. In
addition, a recent survey reports that most of the store employees stated that they are satisfied with their 6os,
while many of the factory employees stated that they are dissatisfied with their 6os.&
###############
"he following is a memo from the principal of Academia <igh 5chool.
&Academia <igh 5chool should aolish its after(school performing(arts programs and replace them with
computer(technology programs. :hen neary "echno <igh 5chool did so last year, total enrollment in all of its
after(school activities remained aout the same. 9oreover, on entering college, many "echno students chose a
ma6or directly related to their after(school activities. 8n the other hand, last year only 10 percent of Academia's
graduating seniors chose performing arts as their ma6or field of study in their first year of college, clearly
indicating that most students do not have a strong interest in the performing arts.&
###############
"he following was ta$en from a guide for aspiring writers.
&New writers usually cannot convince large, prestigious pulishers that their wor$ is mar$etale, so they must
first pulish with smaller, less well($nown presses to estalish a sales record. 2ut the editors of 9ystery :riters
9aga)ine have good news for aspiring writers1 the numer of mystery novels pulished 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 pulished last year were written y first(time novel writers. 5ince there is apparently an
e.panding mar$et for mystery novels, all pulishers will want to increase the numer of mystery novels they
pulish. "herefore, new writers should write mystery novels to increase their chances for first(time pulication
with a larger, prestigious company.&
###############
"he following is a memorandum from the usiness manager of :D55 television station.
&8ver the past year, our late(night news program has devoted increasingly more time to covering national news
and less time to covering weather and local news. 4uring the same time period, most of the complaints we
received from viewers were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition,
several local usinesses that used to run advertisements during our late(night news program have 6ust
cancelled their advertising contracts with us. "herefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs
and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should e.pand the coverage of weather and local
news on all our news programs.&
###############
"he following is part of a letter from the 2roo$free 5chool 2oard.
&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' prolems and to propose a plan of action. 8nly two years ago, however, another group of consultants
determined that several schools in our district had prolems 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 9ason ,ity newspaper.
&At present, 9ason ,ity residents seldom use the neary 9ason %iver for any $ind of recreational activity, even
though surveys of the region's residents consistently ran$ water sports Fswimming, fishing, and oatingG as a
favorite form of recreation. 5ince there have een complaints aout the *uality of the water in the river,
residents must e avoiding the river ecause they thin$ that it is not clean enough. 2ut that situation is aout to
change1 the agency responsile for rivers in our region has announced plans to clean up 9ason %iver.
"herefore, recreational use of the river is li$ely to increase, so the 9ason ,ity council will need to increase its
udget for improvements to the pulicly owned lands along the 9ason %iver.&
###############
"he following report appeared in a memo from the vice president of the 5outhside "ransportation Authority.
&:e should aandon our current five(year plan to purchase additional uses to serve the campus of 5outhside
-niversity, ecause students there are unli$ely to use them. ,onsider the results of the recent campaign
sponsored y the 0nvironmental ,lu at 5outhside -niversity1 in a program on the campus radio station, the
clu as$ed students to call in and pledge that they would commute to school y us instead of y automoile at
least one day per wee$. 8nly 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 pulication.
&8ne study at Dee -niversity found that first(semester grades of teenage students who had always attended
pulic, 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 pulic 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 possile teacher1 a parent who has a high sta$e in educating them well.&
###############
"he following appeared in a report of the ,ommittee on +aculty /romotions and 5alaries at 0lm ,ity -niversity.
&4uring her 1C years as a professor of otany, /rofessor "homas has proved herself to e well worth her
annual salary of @A0,000. <er classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity
among students. 9oreover, the money she has rought to the university in research grants has e.ceeded her
salary in each of the last two years. "herefore, in consideration of /rofessor "homas' demonstrated teaching
and research ailities, we recommend that she receive a @10,000 raise and a promotion to 4epartment
,hairperson? without such a raise and promotion, we fear that /rofessor "homas will leave 0lm ,ity -niversity
for another college.&
###############
"he following appeared in a newsletter distriuted at a recent political rally.
&8ver the past year, the ,onsolidated ,opper ,ompany F,,,G has purchased over one million s*uare miles of
land in the tropical nation of :est +redonia. 9ining copper on this land will inevitaly result in pollution and
environmental disaster, since :est +redonia is home to several endangered animal species. 2ut such disaster
can e prevented if consumers simply refuse to purchase products that are made with ,,,'s copper until the
company aandons its mining plans.&
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"he article entitled &0ating Iron& in last month's issue of 0ating for <ealth reported that a recent study found a
correlation etween high levels of iron in the diet and an increased ris$ of heart disease. +urther, it is well
estalished that there is a lin$ etween large amounts of red meat in the diet and heart disease, and red meat
is high in iron. 8n the asis of the study and the well(estalished lin$ etween red meat and heart disease, we
can conclude that the correlation etween high iron levels and heart disease, then, is most proaly a function
of the correlation etween red meat and heart disease.
###############
"he following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper.
&Iour recent article on corporate downsi)ing3 in the -nited 5tates is misleading. "he article gives the mista$en
impression that many competent wor$ers who lost 6os as a result of downsi)ing face serious economic
hardship, often for years, efore finding other suitale employment. 2ut this impression is contradicted y a
recent report on the -nited 5tates economy, which found that since 1992 far more 6os have een created than
have een eliminated. "he report also demonstrates that many of those who lost their 6os have found new
employment. "wo(thirds of the newly created 6os have een in industries that tend to pay aove(average
wages, and the vast ma6ority of these 6os are full(time.&
34ownsi)ing is the process in which corporations delierately reduce the numer of their employees.
###############
According to a poll of 200 charitale organi)ations, donations of money to nonprofit groups increased y nearly
2A percent last year, though not all charities gained e*ually. %eligious groups gained the most F30 percentG,
followed y environmental groups F23 percentG, whereas educational institutions e.perienced only a very small
increase in donations F3 percentG. "his poll indicates that more people are willing and ale 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$ing goes unnoticed # and can leave the person too tired during the day to e.ercise. Anyone
who snores, therefore, should try to eat less than the average person and to e.ercise more.
###############
"he following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.
&"he lirarians in our town's school system have reported that the numer of trips that our students ma$e to
their school lirary on a voluntary asis has decreased significantly in recent years. +or e.ample, the average
seventh(grade student visited the school lirary 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 prolem,
our town needs to improve the atmosphere of the liraries so that they will e comfortale places in which to
wor$. If students view the liraries as uncomfortale, then they are unli$ely to want to spend much time there.&
###############
"he following appeared in an editorial in a usiness maga)ine.
&Although the sales of :hirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video(
game players suggests that this sales trend is aout 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. :hirlwind has 6ust
introduced several such games with an e.tensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 2A years old,
the age(group most li$ely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of :hirlwind video games are
li$ely to increase dramatically in the ne.t few months.&
###############
"he following appeared in the editorial section of 9onroetown's local newspaper.
&9ayor 2rown was recently re(elected y a clear ma6ority of A2 percent of 9onroetown's voters. <er re(
election, however, does not show that most people in our town favored 9ayor 2rown's proposal for ta.
reduction over that of her opponent, 9r. 7reene, 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 9onroetown disagreed with 9ayor 2rown's
proposal. ,learly most people in 9onroetown favor improving education and therefore approve of 9r. 7reene's
proposal despite the fact that they did not vote for him.&
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"he following is a memorandum from the director of personnel to the president of 7et(Away Airlines.
&5ince our mechanics are responsile for inspecting and maintaining our aircraft, 7et(Away Airlines should pay
to send them to the Puality(,are 5eminar, a two(wee$ seminar on proper maintenance procedures. I
recommend this seminar ecause it is li$ely to e a wise investment, given that the automoile racing industry
recently reported that the performance of its maintenance crews improved mar$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
inevitaly 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 numers of amphiians worldwide clearly indicates the gloal pollution of water and air.
"wo studies of amphiians in IosemiteNational /ar$ in ,alifornia confirm my conclusion. In 191A there were
seven species of amphiians in the par$, and there were aundant numers of each species. <owever, in 1992
there were only four species of amphiians oserved in the par$, and the numers of each species were
drastically reduced. "he decline in Iosemite has een lamed on the introduction of trout into the par$'s
waters, which egan in 1920 Ftrout are $nown to eat amphiian eggsG. 2ut the introduction of trout cannot e
the real reason for the Iosemite decline ecause it does not e.plain the worldwide decline.&
###############
"he following is a letter to the editor of the Atticus ,ity newspaper.
&+ormer 9ayor 4urant owes an apology to the city of Atticus. 2oth the damage to the %iver 2ridge, which
connects Atticus to <artley, and the traffic prolems we have long e.perienced on the ridge were actually
caused 20 years ago y 4urant. After all, he is the one who approved the construction of the ridge. If he had
approved a wider and etter(designed ridge, on which appro.imately the same amount of pulic money would
have een spent, none of the damage or prolems would have occurred. Instead, the %iver 2ridge has
deteriorated far more rapidly over the past 20 years than has the much longer 4ery2ridge up the river. 0ven
though the winters have een severe in the past several years, this is no e.cuse for the negligence and
wastefulness of 4urant.&
###############
"he following is a letter to the head of the tourism ureau on the island of "ria.
&0rosion of each sand along the shores of "ria Island is a serious threat to our island and our tourist industry.
In order to stop the erosion, we should charge people for using the eaches. Although this solution may annoy
a few tourists in the short term, it will reduce the numer of people using the eaches and will raise money for
replenishing the sand. %eplenishing the sand, as was done to protect uildings on the neary island of 2atia,
will help protect uildings along our shores, therey reducing these uildings' ris$ 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 9idvale 8server, a local newspaper.
&0ver since the 19A0'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 numer 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
8server, over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who indicated that prime(time television #
programs that are shown etween C 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$ed A00 middle(aged men over a
20(year period. "he su6ects represented a variety of occupations in several different parts of the country and
responded to an annual survey in which they were as$ed1 <ow often and how strenuously do you e.erciseQ 8f
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$. 7iven the clear
lin$ that this study estalishes 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$ills in elementary school. 9any students who
are discouraged y the lonely activity of reading turn away from schoolwor$ merely ecause they are poor
readers. 2ut oo$s recorded on audiocassette tape provide an important alternative for students at this crucial
stage in their education, one the school oard should not re6ect merely ecause of the e.pense involved. After
all, many studies attest to the value of allowing students to hear oo$s read aloud? there is even evidence that
students whose parents read to them are even more li$ely to ecome ale readers. "hus, hearing oo$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 4ic$ensAcademy.
&:e distriuted a survey to senior management at International 9ega(/ulishing, 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 9ega(/ulishing decided to
improve customer satisfaction y sending their newly hired employees to our one(day seminars. 5ince ta$ing
advantage of our program, International 9ega(/ulishing has seen a sharp increase in sales, an indication that
the numer of their disgruntled customers has declined significantly. Iour company should hire 4ic$ens and let
us turn every employee into an amassador 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 5$i the 5lopes, Incorporated, I would, of course,
e.perience a growth in my usiness. 2ut I also $now how much more prosperous, not to mention lively and
interesting, our community would e if tourism increased. 5ince the main opposition comes from a few
environmentalists3 who do not even live in this community, I see no reason to give in to their views. "he +irst
National 2an$ has finally researched the pro6ect and agreed to fund it. As a result, I see no reason to delay
development of the resort.&
0nvironmentalists are people who advocate the preservation of the natural environment.
###############
"he "rash(5ite 5afety ,ouncil has recently conducted a statewide study of possile harmful effects of garage
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 garage 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 garage sites and people's health. "herefore, the council is pleased to
announce that the current system of garage sites does not pose a significant health ha)ard. :e see no need
to restrict the si)e of such sites in our state or to place any restrictions on the numer of homes uilt near the
sites.
###############
"he nation of ,laria covers a vast physical area. 2ut 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 $nown as /0/ increasingly rea$s down the neuropeptide chemicals
involved in learning and memory. 2ut now, researchers have found compounds that prevent /0/ from
rea$ing neuropeptides apart. In tests, these compounds almost completely restored lost memory in rats. "he
use of these compounds should e e.tended to students who have poor memory and difficulty in concentrating
# and therefore serious prolems in school performance. 5cience finally has a solution for prolems neither
parents nor teachers could solve.
###############
In a study of reading haits of Deeville citi)ens conducted y the -niversity of Deeville, most respondents said
they preferred literary classics as reading material. <owever, a follow(up study conducted y the same
researchers found that the type of oo$ most fre*uently chec$ed out of each of the pulic liraries in Deeville
was the mystery novel. "herefore, it can e concluded that the respondents in the first study had
misrepresented their reading haits.