Let $ Y subseteq Bbb P^N $ be a possibly singular projective variety, defined over the field of complex numbers. Let $X$ be the intersection of $Y$ with $h$ general hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degrees. Let $d>0$ be an integer, and assume that
$dim Y=n+h$ and $ dim Y_{sing} le min{ d+h-1 , n-1 } $. Let $Z$ be an algebraic cycle on $Y$ of dimension $d+h$, whose homology class in $H_{2(d+h)}(Y; Bbb Q)$ is non-zero. In the present paper we prove that the restriction of $Z$ to $X$ is not algebraically equivalent to zero. This is a generalization to the singular case of a result due to Nori in the case $Y$ is smooth. As an application we provide explicit examples of singular varieties for which homological equivalence is different from the algebraic one.
By the fundamental work of Griffiths one knows that, under suitable assumption, homological and algebraic equivalence do not coincide for a general hypersurface section of a smooth projective variety $Y$. In the present paper we prove the same result in case $Y$ has isolated singularities.
