code: public String getFirstSentence(String paragraph) {
  
          if (paragraph == null || paragraph.length() == 0) {
              return "";
          }
  
          BreakIterator sentenceBreaks = BreakIterator.getSentenceInstance();
          sentenceBreaks.setText(paragraph);
          int start = sentenceBreaks.first();
          int end = sentenceBreaks.next();
  
          String sentence = paragraph;
          
          if (start >= 0 && end <= paragraph.length()) {
              sentence = paragraph.substring(start, end);
          }
  
          return sentence.trim();
      }
docs: Returns the first sentence of the specified paragraph.  Uses
  <code>java.text.BreakIterator.getSentenceInstance()</code>