Sentence:  This face-saving reminds us of some American <WSD>ripostes</WSD> a few months back when their space rockets seemed disinclined to leave the earth very far behind; after all, they said, the Russians are only chucking heavy machinery at the moon, whereas we're trying to be more sophisticated and get a sewing-machine up there. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a quick and usually witty response to a taunt, a retort