there seems nothing very unusual about an uncapped 20-year-old English midfielder being asked to step up in the Champions League last-16 against Real Madrid.

From the description, Letha felt sure Jane had herpes zoster, or shingles, which often strikes cancer patients or others with depressed immune systems. Jane spent another week in the Bubble, treated with acyclovir.

That friend […] added, with a smile, that he had more than once amused himself with the thought of a verbarian Attorney-General, authorized to bring informations ex officio against the writer or editor of any work in extensive circulation, who, after due notice issued, should persevere in misusing a word.

Meanwhile giant pulverizers were reducing barren stone and sand to fine particles which would be mixed with fertilizers to yield soil; and the genetic engineers were evolving still other strains of life which could provide a balanced ecology; and the water units were under construction.