1. Punishingly high gasoline prices have come down, potentially damping the public's willingness to embrace alternative - fuel vehicles.

2. Infrastructure improvements are punishingly expensive and desperately needed in a place where, for instance, people travel by boat or plane because there are no roads connecting towns.

3. But at over 27 percent for two-year paper and 16 percent for the 10-year they are still punishingly high. Only short-term investors were behind the rally, which was also exacerbated by thin volumes.

4. It would be hard to sell to voters in rescuing countries unless, as in New York's case, the interest rates on bridging loans were punishingly high.

5. Texas's summer has been unusually hot and dry, and punishingly so.

6. If you want to record the same brutally raw and punishingly fast tracks over and over again, go ahead and have fun.

7. Some airline experts view the downturn in energy prices as little more than a respite from the punishingly high costs. So it's hard to know how airlines will react.

8. The Greek economy shrank 5.5 percent over the past year under the weight of austerity measures and punishingly high interest rates.