31.   Several retailers, benefiting from sharp cuts in their inventory, announced fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday that were generally better than expected.

32.   Still, austerity moves including sharp cuts in public spending could triple the South Korean unemployment rate, cause a surge in bankruptcies and create other hardships.

33.   That quality is now much improved, and is likely to be further enhanced by the sharp cuts in nuclear warheads announced earlier this week.

34.   That sharp cut was announced on a Friday, leading to a sharp selloff that continued through the following Monday.

35.   The budget Schott and Hofmann presented to major-league owners when the deal with the Haas family was approved also called for sharp cuts in the front office.

36.   The city faces a financial crisis that may require a property tax increase and sharp spending cuts to fix.

37.   The national budget crunch also has taken a toll, with President Clinton proposing a sharp cut in federal funding for beach rebuilding.

38.   The new chairman, Bill Archer of Texas, is a strong advocate of low taxes and sharp cuts in welfare spending.

39.   The new economy minister will be Ricardo Lopez Murphy, a graduate of the University of Chicago, who has called for a sharp cut in government employees.

40.   The Pentagon is also pushing for other troop reductions, including a sharp cut in Americans in Bosnia and a pullout from the U.N. mission in the Sinai.