Word: absorbable
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...vital gas being destroyed is a form of oxygen in which the molecules have three atoms instead of the normal two. That simple structure enables ozone to absorb ultraviolet radiation -- a process that is crucial to human health. UV rays can make the lens of the eye cloud up with cataracts, which bring on blindness if untreated. The radiation can cause mutations in DNA, leading to skin cancers, including the often deadly melanoma. Estimates released last week by the United Nations Environment Program predict a 26% rise in the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers worldwide if overall ozone levels drop...
...rampant paving of the countryside -- from parking lots to malls and office complexes -- has made deluges more dangerous by robbing the terrain of its natural ability to absorb rainwater. Water racing across concrete or asphalt travels up to 10 times as fast as it does across a meadow. Often it is funneled into streams and creeks too narrow, shallow and winding to accommodate the rushing runoff...
...advantage of the state's higher welfare payments. In an interview with TIME last month, Wilson talked about the tough choices ahead: "What we are going to have to do, I think, is make an internal decision to be less generous . . . There is a limit to what we can absorb." Despite Wilson's fears, statistics indicate that only 6% of California AFDC families have lived in the state less than 12 months...
...decision was basically clear cut, and I was lucky enough to have the support of my parents, the father and a few close friends, and to have my Harvard medical insurance absorb most of the cost. Nonetheless, the situation was, and to a degree continues to be, a great emotional strain...
...every gadfly who voices contempt for the U.S. and its ills, countless Japanese evince tremendous fondness for their only military ally and premier trading partner. It would be hard, perhaps, to find any nation anywhere so besotted with things American -- from the music, books and movies Japanese absorb to the clothes they wear and hamburgers they eat. Millions of Japanese tourists visit the U.S. every year, while tens of thousands who return from working in America gush about how they loved their stay...