31.   It is my vain attempt to keep a part of me going long after I am gone.

32.   Meanwhile, many of the allies were wavering, sending emissaries to Baghdad in a vain attempt to extract concessions that would redound to their own political advantage.

33.   More and more rural areas are being buried under concrete in a vain attempt to tackle congestion on highways and other major routes.

34.   Most of the firing was in the air, in a vain attempt to scare off the protesters.

35.   No friend of Saddam Hussein, Syria opened its border with Iraq in a vain attempt to help the Iraqi Kurds resist him after the Gulf War.

36.   Often, women undergo the procedure several times, to no avail, each vain attempt covered by insurance.

37.   Palestinian police fired into the air in a vain attempt to stop them, and some eventually trained their guns on their Israeli counterparts.

38.   Ruth is later told that she was conceived in a vain attempt to replace the two beloved boys.

39.   Recently, while in a department store, I was reduced to shouting in a vain attempt to find a clerk.

40.   The budget deficit has grown as the government has shoveled money into the economy in a vain attempt to revive it.