Word: aback
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Long accustomed to public respect and support for their schools, college and university officials were taken aback last year by two major legislative defeats. These defeats seemed to indicate that Congressmen were beginning to view higher education "as just any other special interest...
...somewhat taken aback that [McArthur] would say so bluntly that they had already made a decision not to require a course in business ethics. That seems a bit premature to say such a thing right on the heels of getting $30 million," says Hoffman. "It did not show a great deal of sensitivity and commitment to the responsibility...
...decides not to push his fight with Gaddafi into the Aozou Strip, Libyans may push Gaddafi to leave the rest of Chad to Habre. But predictions involving the erratic Gaddafi are always risky. Last week, for instance, he threatened to join the Warsaw Pact. The Kremlin was so taken aback by Gaddafi's suggestion that Soviet Foreign Ministry officials refused even to acknowledge that the Libyan leader had uttered the offer...
...began a new school term last week, have attracted intense scrutiny by Washington and other capitals. With a 40,000-troop garrison in South Korea, the U.S. views that countryas a key Pacific ally and a bulwark against the Soviet-backed North Korean government. Washington was thus taken aback last year, when North Korean slogans began creeping into South Korean protests and student rhetoric turned sharply anti-American. The U.S. has since urged Chun to help defuse the situation by compromising with the opposition on a formula for the transition to democracy. Secretary of State George Shultz, who visited Seoul...
...gifts of the savants, writes Neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, can be a "quality that takes one aback." He says, "Often the severely retarded have plenty of potential if educated right," but adds, "The question is, What constitutes right? The mental language of each person is different." Nevertheless, the parents of Hope University students take heart at the ways Walker and her small staff are developing talent and self-confidence. As one father, University of California Biology Professor Howard Lenhoff, puts it,"The one thing that worries every parent...