1.   And many in the vast middle emerged slightly worse off than they were when the decade began.

2.   As the decade began, all three men were in Cambridge, Mass., unknown to one another.

3.   But as the present decade began, the resort was bankrupt and threadbare, ripe for the picking by a serious purchaser of ski property.

4.   For the Pattersons, and for many others across Barnstable County, things have gotten worse since the decade began.

5.   That decade began with the Vietnam War still raging and National Guardsmen killing student demonstrators at Kent State.

6.   The decade began with an awful bear market that crushed technology stocks.

7.   The poor got a little poorer, the rich got a lot richer and the large group in the middle emerged slightly worse off than when the decade began.

8.   The world has changed a great deal since this decade began.

9.   When the decade began, the prevailing image of the National Basketball Association was the breathtaking vertical leap of Michael Jordan.

10.   When the decade began, the U.S. economy could not whip Japan, not to mention communism.