Word: astonish
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...desert town of Touggourt, French officials and a sprinkling of carefully chosen Algerians stood in a railroad freight yard ringed by three fences of barbed wire and guarded by soldiers. "This achievement will astonish the world," said Max Lejeune, France's Minister of the Sahara. Engineers threw open the valves of a 6-in. "baby" pipeline, technicians stepped forward to fill souvenir bottles. "It's here! It's here!" shouted jubilant officials. The first oil from the Sahara was on its way to France...
...Blind Man's Meal. Their signature was the all-pervading blue monotone, a color which Picasso has since explained "was not a question of light or color. It was an inner necessity to paint like that." The clowns and buffoons of the Rose period that followed still astonish by their sure draftsmanship and haunting melancholy...
...twists as a corkscrew. He was ambitious beyond belief, but never lost his temper or learned to spell. Through sheer brilliance he worked himself up to the rank of general. But it was not until Queen Anne came to the throne that John Churchill had the chance to astonish Europe. And even then, he would never have succeeded without the backing of his amazing wife Sarah...
...Restoration named Congreve, and the son she bore died a hopeless drunkard. This was an omen perhaps of the centuries the family would lie fallow until another Churchill, half American by blood (great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of John and Sarah), would rise to rally and astonish the Western world...
...Astonish Me!" Last week, as Cocteau took his place at last in the charmed circle of immortality, devoted crowds of the avant-garde gathered outside the former Palais Mazarin, and free tickets to the induction ceremony were scalped for as much as $50. Most were hoping to be shocked, for the yearning to startle and shock has infused much of Cocteau's gaudy swoopings, soarings and occasional pancake landings among the lively arts. The value of surprise was brought home to Cocteau one day 40 years ago, when the ballet impresario Diaghilev turned a coolly monocled eye on Cocteau...