21.   A quarter-century ago, Congress granted the city home rule authority, giving it a large degree of autonomy over its own affairs.

22.   Business has become the tie that not only binds the culture, but defines it to a large degree.

23.   Buddhism worked hard for centuries to put shamanism out of business, and to a large degree succeeded.

24.   But as with Medicaid, what Pataki and the Legislature can do with welfare will depend to a large degree on legislation Congress and President Clinton are debating.

25.   But she knows that the ratings of the celebrity specials made her indispensable to ABC in her dark years, and to a large degree saved her career.

26.   But those gains were offset in large degree by depressed results in its largest business segment, nitrogen fertilizer.

27.   By contrast, in Aid to Families With Dependent Children, states have a large degree of discretion.

28.   Critics -- and to a large degree Sobol himself -- have argued that more of that rule-making should be left to the local districts.

29.   Euro RSCG was an attractive partner because it affords its agencies a large degree of independence, he added.

30.   For these pioneers, practicing e-commerce takes a combination of business smarts, capital, technology and a large degree of risk-taking, say information technology experts.