1.   Here and there are nearly barren stretches that were planted in cotton in May or early June.

2.   On the western edge of Cape Town, on the slope of Table Mountain, a single white church rises from a conspicuously barren stretch of land.

3.   But the rains also caused barren stretches of desert to turn temporarily green with grass and shrubs before returning to desert after the rains stopped.

4.   The barren stretch of land is uninhabitable and offers no known material resources.

5.   Thousands of Afghans fleeing the Taliban set up camps in the barren stretches of far northern Afghanistan near the Tajik border in recent years.

6.   When Li Zhizhong looks out over the wells drawing rich crude oil from beneath a barren stretch of Central Asia, he sees waste.