speculate

"We know that," the men from the budget office have said,

"but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on?

What do you think we might expect?"

The scientist has been shocked

at having even been asked to speculate.

supervise

A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against

the megamergers in the banking industry.

Who is going to supervise,

regulate and operate as lender of last resort

with the gigantic banks that are being created?

suspicious

A few premiers are suspicious of

any federal-provincial deal-making.

They (particularly Quebec and Alberta) just want Ottawa

to fork over additional billions with few, if any, strings attached.

telescope

After developing the first astronomical telescopes,

Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus,

the mountains and plains of the Moon, sunspots,

and the individual stars of the Milky Way.

visa

The Nigerian man arrested for the attempted Christmas Day bombing,

who was on the UK watchlist after being refused a student visa,

told officials that he had been given the bomb

by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.

anticipate

Feeling threatened, companies responded

by writing ever-longer warning labels,

trying to anticipate every possible accident.

milestone

The movie Avatar ekes out a huge milestone in 3D pictures.

Yeah! It is the best movie I've ever seen.