The Blundens were not startled.
Perkins, however, was not startled by the result.
Given the way schools and cities change, Ms. Maurice said she was not startled to learn of the block's unsavory reputation a half century ago.
Overturning clichés is another familiar Ashberian game: we're not startled when someone says "King Alfonso of Spain," but we are when we hear "Alphonse I of Bemidji".
To my surprise, looking at the play again after more than 20 years, I was not startled either by the naivety of the piece, or by the nature of my personal preoccupations then.
After spending an emotional week volunteering at Freedom House, a refugee center in Detroit, three years ago, I find that I am not startled by Patrick Mkhizi's story, but it does make me sad.
They're not startled when the spooky Melisandre shows up, humorlessly birthing a black-smoke monster in a cave, or, most recently, tying up a hot blacksmith, putting leeches on him, harvesting his secretly noble blood, and then throwing the leeches onto a fire.
He was not startled by the trade, but he was startled by how he found out.
Although the kids knew their parents were active in the association, "we'd never talked about the fact the reason we're involved was because of me". During the course of a dinner a little over two years ago, he asked if they knew what Tourette was, and prompted by their response, "I told them that I had it and they were not startled.
As one dispatcher stated, 'I let them know what my plan is so that they are not startled'.
