The following appeared in a memorandum issued by a large city’s council on the arts:

“In a recent citywide poll, 15 percent more residents said that they watch television programs about the visual arts than was the case in a poll conducted five years ago. During these past five years, the number of people visiting our city’s art museums has increased by a similar percentage. Since the corporate funding that supports public television, where most of the visual arts programs appear, is now being threatened with severe cuts, we can expect that attendance at our city’s art museums will also start to decrease. Thus some of the city’s funds for supporting the arts should be reallocated to public television.”

The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company:

“When the Apogee Company had all its operations in one location, it was more profitable than it is today. Therefore, the Apogee Company should close down its field offices and conduct all its operations from a single location. Such centralization would improve profitability by cutting costs and helping the company maintain better supervision of all employees.”

The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods:

“Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-dayservice in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its 25th birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.”

In a field day at a school, each child who competed in n events and scored a total of p points was given an overall score of ~$\frac{p}{n}+n$~. Andrew competed in 1 event and scored 9 points, Jason competed in 3 events and scored 5,6, and 7 points, respectively. What was the ratio of Andrew’s overall score to Jason’s overall score ？

Early administrative decisions in China’s Ming Dynasty eventually caused a drastic fall in tax revenues, a reduction in military preparedness, the collapse of the currency system, and failed to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure.

The North American moose's long legs enable it to move quickly through the woods, stepping easily over downed trees, but predators pursuing it must leap or go around them.

Carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere and helps regulate the planet’s surface temperature, is constantly being exchanged between the atmosphere on the one hand and the oceans and terrestrial plants on the other.

By using a process called echolocation to analyze the echoes of the high-pitched sounds they produce, bats can determine not only the distance to an object, but they also can determine its shape and size and the direction in which it is moving.

The growth projected for these storms in different computerized weather models varies widely.

Industry analysts said that the recent rise in fuel prices may be an early signal of the possibility of gasoline and heating oil prices staying higher than usually through the end of the year.