Word: stretch
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Endlessly westward from the 97th meridian stretch the Great Plains of the state of North Dakota, fertile in places, arid in others, baked by the summer sun and blown by the winter wind. Here wheat is grown, hard red and durum, and herds of beef cattle meander across far-ranging pastures, silhouetted against low horizons; here more than 40,000 shining combines work 63,000 well-kept farms. The farmers are apt to feel sensitive when casual visitors from lusher and more verdant places refer to their hard-worked land as a desert...
...fend off destruction. Exactly 60 ft. 6 in. straight ahead of him, the pitcher looms preternaturally large on his mound of earth. As he crouches close to the ground, his field of vision gives him his own special view of the vast ballpark. The white foul lines stretch to the distant fences; the outfielders seem to be men without legs. Between him and the flycatchers, from the far outfield grass to the brown base paths, the rest of the team twitches nervously in place. In a sense, the game belongs to him. He is the catcher...
...much about the fine arts of diplomacy. But as an excellent bridge player, he well understands the technique of leading through strength to weakness. In one grand-slam move the President took from the Russians the "peace" initiative they have so long held. The world has but to stretch forth its hand to have peace and prosperity such as we have not dared to dream...
...performance was over. Back at his base, Campbell climbed from the Bluebird's cockpit and grimaced with pain; an old back injury had been aggravated by his bouncing, high-speed ride. He shuffled to a nearby crane, held on to its hook, and called out, "I want to stretch my back." The crane operator hoisted him a foot off the ground, let him hang for a few moments and then lowered him gently to earth. After that, he joined his wife and Lady Campbell to wait for the official word...
...traveler winging across the U.S. Southwest, the great American desert still seems an arid and forbidding waste of sand, dry lake beds and jagged rock mountains. But to the observant, a careful look reveals surprising signs of a new civilization rising among the ocotillos and greasewood. Thin asphalt ribbons stretch across the sand, linking black and white dots of clustered homes, blue bands of irrigation canals and rectangles of bright green new farms. From California's southern coastal ranges inland 375 miles to the central Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson, the searing desert, long a shunned part...