question:  Why is everyone surprised that Thaddeus was able to make a bomb?
context: Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction November 1959. He was nutty enough to think he could make an atom bomb out of modeling clay! Through the barred windows of the workshop, rolling green hills were seen, their tree-studded flanks making a pleasant setting for the mental institution. The crafts building was a good mile away from the main buildings of the hospital and the hills blocked the view of the austere complex of buildings that housed the main wards. She stopped behind a frowning, intense patient, rapidly shaping blobs of clay into odd-sized strips and forms. As he finished each piece, he carefully placed it into a hollow shell hemisphere of clay. The flying fingers continued to whip out the bits of shaped clay as the patient ignored the question. "You've been coming along famously and you must remember to answer when someone talks to you. Thaddeus Funston continued to mold the clay bits and put them in place. "Atom bomb." I thought you said an 'atom bomb.'" That shows real creative thought. At the clay table, Funston feverishly fabricated the last odd-shaped bit of clay and slapped it into place. With a furtive glance around him, he clapped the other half of the clay sphere over the filled hemisphere and then stood up. At the clay table, she carefully lifted the top half of the clay ball and stared thoughtfully at the jumbled maze of clay strips laced through the lower hemisphere. As she drove out of the hospital grounds, Thaddeus Funston stood at the barred window of his locked ward and stared vacantly over the hills towards the craft shop. He stood there unmoving until a ward attendant came and took his arm an hour later to lead him off to the patients' mess hall. The sun set, darkness fell over the stilled hospital grounds and the ward lights winked out at nine o'clock, leaving just a single light burning in each ward office. At 3:01 a.m., Thaddeus Funston stirred in his sleep and awakened.
output:  It was only made of clay and nothing else
options:  He needed the finger paints but Mr. Lieberman had taken those  Miss Abercrombie had taken away the other parts that would have made it work  It was only made of clay and nothing else  It was the wrong kind of clay to build an explosive device from