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378. In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

379. In good years, the patchwork of green fields that surround the San Joaquin Valley town bustles with farm workers, many of them in the area just for the season.

380. In her recently published study, Rubin asserts that most women do not

suffer from the “empty nest syndrome”; they are, in fact, relieved when their children depart. 381.

In his eagerness to find a city worthy of Priam, the German archaeologist

Schliemann cut through Troy and uncovered a civilization a thousand years more ancient than the city known to Homer’s heroes. 382.

In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitney

Clinic, distinguishes between mood swings, which may be violent without being grounded in mental disease, and genuine manic-depressive psychosis. 383.

Leon Forrest’s work is more reminiscent of Henry Miller’s obsessive

narratives and Toni Morrison’s mythic languages than James Joyce’s internal explorations.

384. Holland spends a larger percentage of its gross national product on defending its coasts from rising seas than the United States does on military defense. 385.

In its most recent approach, the comet Crommelin passed the Earth at

about the same distance and in about the same position, some 25 degrees

above the horizon, as will Halley’s comet the next time it appears. 386.

In Japan elderly people are treated with far greater respect than they are

in most Western countries. 387.

A government advisory committee in Japan called for the breakup of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company, the world’s largest telephone company, into two local phone companies and one long-distance provider.

388. In June of 1987, The Bridge of Trinquetaille, Vincent van Gogh’s view of

an iron bridge over the Rhone, was sold for $20.2 million, the second highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.

389. In June of 1989, Princeton Township approved a developer’s plans to

build 300 houses on a large portion of the 210-acre site of the Battle of Princeton, one of only eight Revolutionary War battlefields that had remained undeveloped. 390.

In June, 1981, six teenagers in the village of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia,

claimed to have had visions of the Virgin Mary, who they say has continued to appear to them over the ensuing years.

391. In large doses, analgesics that work in the brain as antagonists to certain

chemicals have caused psychological disturbances in patients, an effect that

may limit the potential of such analgesics for relieving severe pain. 392.

In metalwork one advantage of adhesive-bonding over spot-welding is

that the contact, and hence the bonding, is effected continuously over a broad surface rather than at a series of regularly spaced points with no bonding in between.

393. In one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, fought at Sharpsburg,

Maryland, on September 17, 1862, four times as many Americans were killed

as would later be killed on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day. 394.

In one of the most stunning reversals in the history of marketing, the

Coca-Cola company in July 1985 yielded to thousands of irate consumers who demanded that it bring back the original Coke formula.

395. In presenting his modus vivendi proposal, Lansing implied that the

American government accepted the German view that armed merchant vessels were warships: however, by dropping the proposal, the Wilson administration seemed to be reverting to the British view on this question. 396. In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding,

partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

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397. Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

398. In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of

specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the

raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat. 399.

Despite massive federal subsidies to public transportation systems and major local efforts to persuade the public to use public transportation, mass transit has been steadily losing patronage to the private automobile for the past thirty years.

400. In such works as his 1889 masterpiece, A Dash for the Timber, Frederic Remington caught the public’s fancy by portraying those moments of conflict that defined the West’s romantic heroes. 401.

In terms of physics, the characteristic feature of the roller coaster is that

the potential energy of the cars, gained as a chain drive lifts them through the Earth’s gravity to the top of the first drop, has been converted to kinetic energy by the time the ride ends.

402. In the 1950’s astronomers were divided between those who believed the

universe began with a cosmic explosion (the “big bang”) and those who favored the model of an eternal and infinite steady-state universe.

403. In the 1950s, when the Chrysler Corporation sponsored a live television

show about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln’s name or the name of the Ford Theater because it did not want to plug the competition.

404. In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United

States was nearly twice what it was in the 1970’s. 405.

In the face of widespread concern about environmental waste, compact

disc manufacturers are attempting to find a replacement for the disposable

plastic box in which they package their product. 406.

In the fall of 1985, only 10 percent of the women entering college planned

to major in education, while 28 percent chose business, making it the most popular major for women as well as for men.

407. In the initial planning stages, the condominium corporation took into account only the concerns of its prospective clients, not those of surrounding homeowners.

408. In the last few years, the number of convicted criminals given community

service sentences allowing them to remain unconfined while performing

specific jobs that benefit the public has risen dramatically. 409.

In the last ten years, the dropout rate among Black high school students

has fallen substantially, while the number of Blacks attending college has

more than doubled. 410.

In the last twenty years, despite the chauvinism of European

connoisseurs, California wines have gained respect throughout the world. 411. In the late seventh century, in a dispute over whether the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali, should carry on as the fourth caliph, Muhammad’s successor, Islam split into two branches, the Sunnis and the Shiites.

412. In the main, incidents of breakdowns in nuclear reactors have resulted not from lapses of high technology but from commonplace inadequacies in plumbing and wiring.

413. In the mid-1920’s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric

Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers’ performance. 414.

In the mid-1960’s a newly installed radar warning system mistook the

rising of the moon for a massive Soviet missile attack. 415.

In the minds of many people living in England, before Australia was Australia, it was the antipodes, the opposite pole to civilization, an obscure

and unimaginable place that was considered the end of the world. 416.

In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa,