Word: scant
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Despite these impressive figures, government polls indicate that a scant 30% of the population today claim to have any real personal religious beliefs. Many scholars trace the reasons for this void to the social shocks of World War II, which left a widespread legacy of nihilism. As large numbers of people flowed from the countryside into urban centers during the 1950s, they were separated from ties with the religions in their home areas. Getting a good education and blazing a successful career became national preoccupations, supplanting traditional faiths...
...history: a terse report that a "briefing book" drawn up to help President Carter prepare for his 1980 campaign debate with Ronald Reagan found its way to Reagan's staff and was used to coach the Republican challenger. Journalists, who might well have disregarded the discovery as of scant consequence during the period when the new President was taking office, perceived high drama when the story surfaced in June. Washington was nearing the dog days of summer, and another campaign was beginning...
...Humphrey Atkins, an old friend who had resigned as Deputy Foreign Secretary last year. It was equally clear that she did not favor Deputy Speaker Bernard Weatherill. The M.P.s, incensed that the Prime Minister was meddling in a decision that was theirs alone, chose Weatherill. Thatcher, however, had scant time to mull over the slight: she turned to preparing the Queen's speech, which will outline her new legislative program and be delivered this week. Britons will not get their respite from politics for some time...
...tearing the community apart three years ago, all its farmers and all but one of its 400 families have left. Rebels now sleep in blankets on the dirt floors amid mangled stoves and the carcasses of homes. They are forced to spend less time on training than on tending scant wheat crops or washing clothes. "I've told the freedom fighters to start cultivating and doing farm work," sighs Mohammed Anwar, while making bread. "But it is difficult when mujahedin must do this...
...Mafia-like loan-shark rates of 20% or so that prevailed 24 months ago, but they are still very high by historical standards. Inflation, now at an annual rate of less than 4%, could be rekindled if the economy heats up too quickly. Already there are a few scant signs of that. In May, the producer price index, a harbinger of consumer prices, rose .3%, after declining slightly in April and March. Small though it was, it was the highest rise for the index so far this year...