11.   The weather improved somewhat in the late afternoon -- the snow stopped and the ice got harder -- benefiting the late starters.

12.   Waltzing through the awful NFC West has been the perfect way to get ready for a schedule that gets harder, though not overwhelming, in the second half.

13.   However, faced with strong unemployment pressures -- the official urban jobless rate is already more than five million -- the task of finding jobs gets harder every year.