1.   The zoo curators at the conference had news that was almost as bleak.

2.   Of course, the picture may not have been quite as bleak as all this might suggest.

3.   For its part the Government claims that the figures are not as bleak as they would seem.

4.   His face was as bleak as the frost.

5.   Amid the diplomatic crisis, the view from the street and in the media seems as bleak as it has been in five years of working toward peace.

6.   Analysts and economists, however, have said that those production-rate cuts do not justify an employment forecast as bleak as the one Boeing delivered.

7.   Analysts noted that the economic outlook was not necessarily as bleak as the slowdown in orders at Motorola and other chipmakers might suggest.

8.   As bleak as things looked at that point, he set perhaps a new standard for graciousness and class, at least in sports.

9.   As bleak as winter, regional employment figures for January arrived Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Labor Department.