1.   And the contest began.

2.   As the primary-season contests begin, it is this second view that is only slowly coming into focus.

3.   A home run contest has not begun to develop between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, but look out for the mushrooming rivalry in the Gonzalez gang.

4.   Burnett maintains he did not realize this until after the contest began.

5.   But the contest is just beginning.

6.   Clinton has maintained the political contest will not begin until after the August conventions, though he has routinely appeared in key battleground states to make presidential announcements.

7.   Creane, you see, had selected a secluded spot along a nearby lake and waited for the contest to begin.

8.   It was a hit in the first focus-group test, which was conducted even before the contest began last week.

9.   Katie chatted away about her love of reading, and attributed it to her spelling success an hour before the national contest began.

10.   Let the popularity contest begin.