Word: fractions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...clandestine Soviet nuclear tests in space. Spy satellites picked up massive bursts of gamma rays similar to those released during the explosion of atom bombs. But these bursters, as gamma-ray scientists began to call them, did not match any known pattern. They were brief, lasting from only a fraction of a second up to 100 seconds. Civilian experts were called in to study the data, and the Soviet-nuclear-test theory was eventually ruled out. But scientists remained puzzled: What were those fleeting yet powerful flashes of gamma rays, and where did they come from...
...most powerful constituents embrace it. Proposals to raise education standards meet local opposition because they would be expensive and inconvenient. When the Pentagon tries to save billions by closing obsolete bases, hawks and doves fight to preserve them. Last year Americans spent $5 billion at movie box offices. A fraction of that sum could dramatically reduce infant mortality. It is all a matter of priorities...
...aerial bombing was going badly, but the optimists were far off the mark too. American casualties were less than 5% of the lowest prewar Pentagon estimates. U.S. forces had prepared about 10,000 beds, aboard ships and in three field hospitals, to receive the wounded; only a tiny fraction were filled...
...work students here can't seem to get away from. But second and more significant (for most of us, anyway), is the structure of social life on campus. At a College of approximately 6400 students, the only established campus social organizations are exclusive and cater to a small fraction of the undergraduate populace...
...future shape of U.S. preparedness, and its price tag, will depend on the course of the gulf war and the outcome of political events in the troubled Soviet Union. Until these matters are resolved, it is just as well that the U.S. is not fighting even a fraction more than one war at a time...