excess

One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices

is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred

against the background of general commodity-price inflation

and global excess demand.

gradual

Mr. McWhorter's academic speciality is language history and change,

he sees the gradual disappearance of "whom,"

for example, to be natural and no more regrettable

than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.

precedent

They sustained his appeal and rendered a verdict

which is expected to create the legal precedent

that the private life of a university man

shall be considered as of no relation to his scholastic position.

predecessor

Thus the American president and vice-president

have surnames starting with B and C respectively;

and 26 of George Bush's predecessors (including his father)

had surnames in the first half of the alphabet

against just 16 in the second half.

procedure

Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled,

cataracts removed in a 30-minutes surgical procedure.

proceed

Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive

and proceed directly to a company's Web site.

process

We are thus led to distinguish,

within the broad educational process

which we have been so far considering,

a more formal kind of education - that of direct tuition or schooling.