31.   At home a poorly prepared effort at social security reform touched off weeks of labor unrest.

32.   At just past four feet down, they turned up a human skull and touched off a raging local controversy.

33.   Atkinson asked, touching off a murmur of agreements and a choreography of head nods in the crowd.

34.   Author Ravi Batra foretold terrible times ahead on the theory that the great concentration of wealth in the United States would touch off a speculative binge.

35.   Barbara said he does not know what touched off the fights or who started them.

36.   Begelman, who committed suicide earlier this month, touched off a power struggle within Columbia when he was caught embezzling from his company.

37.   Because such fake bills are so skillfully constructed, and because most stay below the threshold that touches off more careful scrutiny, they are extremely difficult to spot.

38.   Because the vaccine may have degraded over the decades, performing all the proposed research might still not determine whether it accidentally touched off the AIDS epidemic.

39.   Belanger, on his first shift, slammed the Islanders defenseman David Harlock into the back boards, touching off a skirmish behind the net.

40.   Bonds could keep climbing, leaving mortgage securities behind, if evidence of slow retail sales and low consumer prices touch off a rally tomorrow, traders said.