Word: aback
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...Sandy Koufax, born Sanford Brown in Brooklyn ? years ago, picked baseball mostly because it seemed easier than being an architect-which is what he first wanted to be. His stepfather, Irving Koufax, is a lawyer, and his mother is an accountant, and they were more than a little taken aback when Sandy decided to spend his life throwing a ball around. To this day, baseball is never discussed in the Koufax household...
...with no more than a handshake. Though the Germans rarely strike (only 34 strikes all last year), the French have a way of striking at any time without warning; wildcat walkouts are especially prevalent in Britain, where the courts have little power to intervene. U.S. businessmen are often taken aback by the anti-capitalist polemics, greater militance and puzzling multiplicity of the labor unions. The British have 190 unions, and a company such as Ford must negotiate with more than 20 on each contract go-round. In France three welders working side by side may belong to three different unions...
...poetic public was taken aback by Ash-Wednesday, his first published poem in five years. Subdued and introspective, it was also religious to the point of being liturgical...
...Taken Aback. To date, Moscow has given no account of exactly what happened to Khrushchev and why-forcing not only the West but also other Communist parties to work out the puzzle as best they could (see following story). The Soviet press kept stating the new regime's case against Khrushchev in the usual half-veiled style; its gist was that he had been highhanded and had refused to take advice. But the criticism sounded a little more restrained, with the new regime presumably taken aback by the protests...
...administrative slip-up made last Spring has intensified the problem in the Government Department. Due to a confusing application blank, many juniors did not make the request for credit tutorial which is required, and consequently found themselves without tutors this fall. The Department, taken aback by the 30 juniors who pounded on the door at the start of the year, has tried to accommodate as many of them as possible. It pressed every one of its teaching fellows to carry a maximum teaching load and thus found tutors for 14 of the late applicants. But it could not help those...