Word: number
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...many student athletes, whose efforts make this bonanza possible, spend their college years scrimping to make ends meet. A large number of these players are black and look on basketball as their one chance to escape from poverty. But the path to the National Basketball Association, where annual salaries average $600,000, is exceedingly narrow. The chances of making it are less than 1 in 500. Nearly 20,000 young men play college basketball; about 40 will make the N.B.A. each year. "The odds of becoming a brain surgeon are greater than the odds of winning a starting spot...
...players who can scarcely read are accepted by colleges and universities, it is no surprise that large numbers of them never get a degree. The NCAA publishes an annual compilation of athletes' graduation rates, but withholds the names of individual institutions. With good reason: many schools would be embarrassed. Of the 20 black students who played for Memphis State University's basketball team between 1976 and 1986, for example, only one left the school with a diploma. Among the top basketball powers, only a small number -- including Duke, Georgetown and Providence College -- claim a near 100% graduation rate...
...Grande valley. Says Brand: "The little farmer has gone the way of the oxcart. Leave it up to Hightower, and we'd be like India." Among Hightower's powerful foes are chemical companies, which he alienated by pushing a tough pesticide law in 1985 and nearly doubling the number of produce inspectors...
...First, we do not know their location. Second, we don't know who the kidnapers are. Any miscalculation in approaching this matter may result in the death of hostages rather than in saving their lives. In the past, a number of our soldiers were killed in attempts to find the hostages, but despite that we could not find them. A number of hostages have been released with our help, but we could not help all of them. We hope in the future our efforts will help all of them as it has helped those in the past...
...aborted coup reinforced the view of a number of key officials in Washington that the U.S. -- and other nations -- must come to terms with India's growing military and political clout in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. Said Richard Armitage, then the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs: "It doesn't make sense for the U.S. not to have a congenial relationship with the largest democracy and the dominant military power in the subcontinent -- and with a country that will clearly take its place on the world stage in the 21st century...