Word: english
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Welcome to the world of English writer Dennis Potter: a nightmare realm of domestic violence, scored to the haunting lilt of pop standards. His output embraces dozens of television plays, half a dozen screenplays and two novels. But the range of Potter's work is less impressive than its searing ferocity and compassion. His haunted characters dwell in the surreal land we all inhabit, as we float vagrantly from suffocating reality to liberating fantasy, from pessimism to possibility, from fear to hope -- and then back, always back again, when we realize that the conditional tense holds even more horror than...
...olds in the work force has dropped from 22.4 million in 1979 to 20.2 million last year. Most of the growth will be among minorities -- the very groups that have been served least well by public school systems. Over the next decade, blacks, Hispanics and Asians, who may speak English poorly, will make up more than half of all entry-level employees...
...Jane Conrad, 45, a $14-an-hour GM press operator, missed out on a supervisor's job because she had not finished high school. So the mother of six enrolled in GM's Flint Township Learning Lab this year. Subjects included a thorough review of fractions, reading comprehension and English literature. Conrad, who received a high school diploma this past summer, is concerned about the increasing demands of automation at the plant. Says she: "If you don't have the basic training, some of it can be hard to keep up with...
...shock has been particularly strong in the service industries. At American Express, which expects to fill 75,000 entry-level positions in the next five years, profits depend on good customer relations. Says Amex President Lou Gerstner, whose company spends $10 million annually to teach its new workers basic English and social skills: "I lie awake at night wondering where I'm going to find well-qualified employees for the future." Even the art of cooking requires more of workers than ever before. Last year Domino's Pizza of Ann Arbor, Mich., discovered that its fledgling bakers had trouble understanding...
...know he had a problem on his hands until one of his 400 employees noticed that a forklift operator took forever to count loads of lumber. A bit of digging disclosed that about 10% of the mill's workers needed help developing proficiency in math and English. So, at a cost of $15,000, Gregory asked the nearby Umpqua Community College to provide , instruction. Says he: "We're spending millions of dollars to modernize the mill. It just didn't make sense to pay for that without providing training for basic skills as well...