Word: downright
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...else was prepared to. Purges following the 1968 invasion wiped out all potential reformers within the party, and a continued hard line kept any progressive new party figures from emerging. The government also used Czechoslovakia's relative prosperity to buy off the workers, who proved reluctant, if not downright timid, about demanding change. Last week the workers listened to men like Havel and agreed to join in. Said a truck driver: "They showed us not to be afraid." That coalition of intellectuals, students and workers turned out to be an unstoppable force...
When they return home, though, East Germans now face an array of questions that seemed theoretical, if not downright irrelevant, only weeks ago. Do they want to build the future within the boundaries of the state as it presently exists? Would they be better off if the whole country were, in effect, annexed by Bonn? Could they hold their own in a partnership with West Germany? And perhaps most important, what are they -- East Germans or just Germans...
...this is downright ridiculous...
Couch potatoes, your last excuse is gone. You knew you should be getting into your running shoes and hitting the pavement. After all, everyone concedes that exercising is one of the best ways to stave off heart attacks and other health problems. But hard physical exertion is downright unpleasant, and you -- along with about 50 million other sedentary Americans -- could be forgiven for putting it off or avoiding it altogether...
...released this Saturday by the National Security Archive show that the FBI began to check librarians to discover "whether a Soviet active-measures campaign had been initiated to discredit the Library Awareness Program." Implicit in this request is the FBI's belief that any criticism of its programs is downright un-American...