Word: bleaker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Some of the most passionate talk, however, centered on what many bishops consider an equally critical problem: the growing shortage of priests. By the latest count, at least 1,000 of the 22,733 U.S. parishes have no resident clergy. The future looks even bleaker. The number of priests (now 53,522) is certain to decline as the population of Catholics (54 million) increases. By the year 2000, experts estimate, there will be only half as many active priests as there were in 1965, when there were only 46 million parishioners...
This winter may be bleaker than usual in the U.S.S.R. With cold weather fast approaching and an increasingly militant labor force threatening to paralyze the transportation system, supplies of food and fuel could be in jeopardy. Soviet leaders reacted with old-style authority by proposing sweeping emergency measures: a ban on all strikes for 15 months and deployment of troops to break an Azerbaijani blockade of Armenia. But after a dramatic all- night debate, legislators in the Supreme Soviet did what not so long ago was unthinkable. They rebuffed the strike proposal as "unconstitutional" and voted instead to put strict...
...authorizing Government-paid interpreters for those who do not speak English. So far, though, only 308 people have passed the rigorous Spanish-only federal certification process -- a cadre far too small to handle the 43,000 annual requests for interpreters in 60 languages. The situation in the states is bleaker. Last year Cook County, Ill., processed 40,000 requests, and the New York courts sought out interpreters 250 times a day. As in the federal system, Spanish is the language most in demand...
...Guard churches that defined the nation's spiritual and moral ethos from Plymouth Rock through the 1950s are coping with a decline in numbers and social clout. Strategic failures abound in recruitment, missions and education, while demographic trends point to an even bleaker future...
...Bleaker still because Sarah has been socialized so thoroughly into her role as a housewife that she can never break free of it. She retains her meticulous materialism. After having fled from society, sitting alone on a island, Sarah sends a final letter--to her husband...