Word: aback
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Surprisingly, even some wolf supporters were taken aback at the possibility that the animal is engineering its own comeback. They are reacting as if werewolves, not gray wolves, have suddenly appeared. Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for example, fear that their long-discussed plans to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone could become sidetracked. The Endangered Species Act would require the Federal Government to protect wild wolves from hunters and ranchers, and could prohibit the reintroduction of other wolves. Conservationists are worried that there will be too few immigrant animals to start a thriving population, and that a complacent...
President Bush seemed to be leaning toward approval, despite the opposition of antiabortion groups who were disturbed that the plan did not provide anything but "comfort care" for premature infants with the least chance of survival. But the President was taken aback, according to several reports, when Robert Powell, a vice president of the National Right to Life Committee, voiced his opposition at a White House photo opportunity several months ago. "If that plan was in effect when I was born in Texas," Powell told the President, "I'd be dead today." As an infant, Powell developed an inoperable tumor...
Cohen an his employees were a bit taken aback--until they realized the woman probably wasn't aware that the pet store formerly occupying the space had moved a few doors down...
...female producers. Harvard men don't want to admit it, but they do have problems with women in authoritative positions. Comedy is a very male-dominated realm. I am the only woman who has only done comedy. [As a director] I have my hands in everything...People are taken aback. If I were a man, they wouldn't be. It's a general cultural stereotype. A woman in an authoritative position is seen as a bitch...Of course, all of these are huge, sweeping statements and don't apply to everyone...
...Taken aback by my deviant stances concerning these issuse which they believed were manifestly inarguable, my Muslim brothers declared that my arguments were invalid, and that my objective in this discussion was to censor the "truth," to revile Islam by dictating what is acceptable--a sin comparable to those of the sheikhs they despise. Then, in front of three fellow Muslims, I was declared a "munafiq," a hypocrite in the faith, perhaps the most vicious insult to a Muslim...