Gd12 Flashcards
At least for museum curators, ancient Israel was a cultural backwater. Nothing from it is comparable to the tombs and temples of Egypt, the libraries and ziggurats of Babylon, or the glazed tiles and palaces of Persepolis
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A China crush in the making?
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Mainland banks faced a liquidity crunch, with interbank lending rate soaring to record highs
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Body covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed? from the wreckage
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Firefighters clambered over the twisted metal
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Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by government-driven austerity to bring its finances into order
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Hospital staff worked overtime to tend the injured
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Tottenham boss lashes out at condition of the rain-ravaged stadium pitch as Sunderland surge to victory
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The defeat was the least of his worries
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The pitch has been turned into a quagmire by a torrential downpour
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He have sprained ligaments in his ankle
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The rain abated before kick-off
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An underwhelming first half
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The manager fielded four of the eight signings he made this summer as he seeks to reshape his squad
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He had lined his pocket with office and campaign fund
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An endless covert, see-saw negotiation
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He had been convicted of murder in a brief, carefully orchestrated trial
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It bore no relation to crime
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The press has been awash with rumours
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A truncated and regimented “public” trial
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A feisty person doesn’t follow a script
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Forge a consensus
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In terms of (or in – terms)
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His image was everywhere reverently displayed
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He spent his time reading omnivorously
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The child was stillborn
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The remaining ten years of his life were less eventful
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There was some financial scandal involving one of the ministers, but it was all hushed up
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He made a last-ditch effort yesterday to extricate himself from the row over …
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A non-binding motion
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In an apparent coincidence,
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The soldier was decorated a number of times for his courage
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Hong Kong people have been beating the odds
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Being blind and hearing-impaired and having to read Braille with her lips
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It means give-and-take; it cannot be winner-takes-all
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Crochet garments are in vogue this season
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Though commonsensical and at first attractive, …
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Line-to-take
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Intermittent rain
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It was in August of 1978 that Bolton Brothers hatched their plot to kill their parents
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No discord, no concord
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It was a close call for us
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Horse around
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Crouching tiger and hidden dragon
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Let’s give her a good send-off
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Go with your gut!
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In no time!
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Sway the flies
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If I ask you out on a date, what would you say?
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Spend so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence
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Perceptions often trump realty
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Retract his words/ allegations
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I put a cash wager on sth
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You are going to eat my dust
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I thought you are a bunch of nothing
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It is good to be (out) in the open after being cooped up in an office all day
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We are fraternity brothers
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There’s no rest for the wicked
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Don’t make friend of the wrong sort
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His desire for political power knows no bounds
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It is beyond/ outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour
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The newspaper coverage of the murder went beyond the reasonable bounds
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Be out of bounds = if an area is out of bounds, people are not allowed to go there
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He is bewitched by his beauty
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He ended up ensnared by the complexity of the legal system
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On my whistle!
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Don’t make a fool of yourself
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Pea-brain!
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Sheer dumb luck
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Don’t dwell on dreams
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A late-night page-turner
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Got to have your wits about you
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This complicates things a bit
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I didn’t have the nerve to tell him what I really thought of his suggestion
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Excelsior
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I am not buying the invitation
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Life is hard enough as it is
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Old Kinderhook = OK
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Don’t get into my study
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Will you please pipe down? I am trying to read
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A restraining order
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I am already on thin ice with my friends
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I took it too far
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Don’t make fun
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Stop your mood swing
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It is electric between us
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A illegal bookmaker
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I hope I can be of service
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You are not a stand-up guy
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Bread crumbs
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His estranged wife
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The prince was reported to be elated at/by the birth of his daughter
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He was lauded for his performance
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His comedic edge has never been sharper
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Don’t lump she and me together
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It was quite a moving speech - it almost brought a lump to my throat
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You are going to be in harness and jump
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I thought the decorations were way over the top
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You are still in the running towards the Top Model
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Martial law
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Students have been sitting in on and off this week
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Sporadic violence was reported nationwide
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The warning did not appear to have thinned the ranks at the demonstration
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Urged relevant parties to abandon the use of force to avoid further bloodshed
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He led the coup that ousted Mursi
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As a gesture of appreciation
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The film has a positive critical reception and a successful run in Hong Kong
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The animated movie was denied a spot amongst the 34 places available for foreign films in the Chinese box office
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This seems to have done little good
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A bootleg copy
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Fans braved the sweltering heat to …
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The impunity of the sand
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The bus plunged into a ravine
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A stash of drug
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Hidden compartments in a suitcase
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Clip sb’s wing = limit sb’s freedom
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Bite the bullet!
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He posed a counter-question, rather than an answer
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They were forced to backtrack on their statement
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The sand contains foreign objects
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To draw a line in the sand = a metaphorical point beyond which no further advance will be accepted or made
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What we call ‘life’ is just a necessary fiction. Without a huge admixture of fantasy, reality would grind to a halt
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The callow cult of ‘choice’ or ‘options’ of our own day
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Extrude/squeeze the tube of toothpaste
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Run the stall
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My stomach keeps calling
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Become sworn siblings
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His accountant has aided and abetted him in the fraud
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Nipped one’s dream in the bud
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The band was belting out all the old favourite
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Steal the limelight
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Be better by a mile
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I’m at my wit’s end
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Just stay put!
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To bunk up with you
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Are you going to sit on the share?
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Do you get any Tencent holding?
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The attitude of the airport guard was symptomatic of a system falling apart at the seams
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10,000 soldiers were killed or maimed
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Fine words butter no parsnips = nothing is achieved by empty promises or flattery
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Fine feathers make fine birds
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One’s finest hour = the time of one’s greatest success
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Tragedy is the one that confronts the meaning-of-life question most searchingly and unswervingly
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Find a foothold in this unstable terrain
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Isabel stood as if turned to stone
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The elevator dropped like a stone
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The new job is not a promotion as such, but it brings good prospects for the future
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Because we live by signs, which bring along with them the capacity for abstraction, we can distance ourselves from our immediate contexts, free ourselves from the imprisonment of our bodily senses, and speculate on the human situation as such
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Like fire, however, the power of abstraction is an ambiguous gift, at once creative and destructive
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A tunnel was hollowed out in a mountain range
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Even in our most ecstatic moments, we are dimly aware that the ground is marshy underfoot - that there is no unimpeachable foundation to what we are and what we do
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Mammals have, by and large, bigger brains than reptiles = on the whole; everything considered
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Would not muster many votes
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Things are just baldly themselves, rather than enigmatic signs of something else
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They made plain their aversion to the use of force
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Launched on a grand scale
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You brood from time to time on whether it needs tinkering with or transforming
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A high wire act across an abyss
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She was subservient to her parents
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Linguists explore the nuances of language
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Home is where the heart is
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A pact with the Devil
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They are just hoping against hope that she’s still alive
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We were so outclassed - we did not have a hope in hell of winning
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The old man’s will has been tampered with
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Some of the China’s more restive regions
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A high-flier
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Chek Lap Kok came out tops in efficiency from 2008 to 2011
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Nowhere to escape
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A traumatized worker
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The chopper hacked at the heads and shoulders of the passengers
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The attack stopped only when other passengers overpowered the suspect
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He sat cross-legged
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He came under investigation
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A snap judgement
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Daily devotionals
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Two-timer
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What prompted you to introspect?
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The door squeaked as it swung back and forth on its rusty hinges
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“Life is not worth living,” she declared melodramatically
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You are not the studious type
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He is grinning from ear to ear
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Don’t take the quack too seriously
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Why did you go through my things?
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Partners in crime
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Don’t turn us in
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Don’t horse around
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He won the title emphatically
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Self-proclaimed qigong master
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Conjure live snakes out of an empty pot
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He swindled believers with false claims about his supernatural healing powers and pocketed a fortune
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Vanish from his hometown and materialize in Hong Kong
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A big red board with glided characters bears the word “The Wang Mansion”
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A barrage of investigative media coverage
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He was jailed for sabotaging Communist Party
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He was often roughed up by other prisoners, leaving him “with bruises all over his face”
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His flamboyant and boastful ways
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The halos of these masters are fading
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Analysts take Li Ka-shing’s silence on results in their stride
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Spark a frenzy of speculation among journalists
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Shun the television cameras
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He tactfully avoided the sensitive questions
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Try to be witty in his encounters with the press
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The rich’s right-hand man comes across as a manager with an iron fist
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He was spouting liberal platitudes
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Hold one’s breath = in a state of suspense or anticipation
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She snuggled her head into his shoulder
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The logo is plastered all over the curvaceous box
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Recently the rumour mill went into …
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A budget iphone
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Charity covers a multitude of sins
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Do we arrive the world blank slates?
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Blow/ bomb/ wipe sth off the map
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Never mind. Chalk it up to experience
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Today’s victory is the fifth that the team has chalked up this year
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The company is trying to spin off part of its business
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We go back and forth on it, but can’t decide
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She seemed to be very meek and mild
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Be back in a bit
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I have no time to run errands for you
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What a bummer!
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I just ran into a glass door
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The company is saddled with debt
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Silver bows and gaudy ribbons
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Back in 1960s, he sported bell-bottom trousers, platform heels, and hair down past his shoulders
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Just give me the bottom line upfront
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The gentle breeze wafted the scent of roses
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I was entranced - and determined to have one
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A lofty habitat
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The light went out and the house was shrouded in darkness
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A social butterfly
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Butterflies in the stomach
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As light as a butterfly
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As gaudy as a butterfly
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Break a butterfly on the wheel
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Our bungalow rang hollow
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I spent most of my time outdoors, ranging through the bamboo
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Keep a wary eye out for
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In the dense heat
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The cicadas buzzed
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I traipsed home disconsolately
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I caught a flash of brilliant white out of the corner of my eye
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I began to raise my net, little by little, my heart pounding, the sweat trickling down my brow
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There at last was the coveted prize, beating furiously in the fine mesh of my trap
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On an impulse, I tossed my long-sought prize into the clear, bright air
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With every intention of nudging it into the killing jar
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She looked dowdy and plain
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I need a cut-and-dried decision by the end of this week
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Students account for the vast majority of our customers
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We pigged out on all the lovely cakes and pastries
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It was all hushed up
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Your record is against you
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You mark my word, there will be killing every day!
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Dozed off
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Someone blabbed to the press
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I’ ve never smoked - it’s a filthy habit
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Nothing but that could call Fawkes to you
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A meddlesome person
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You lost you my servant!
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I can’t believe he’s marrying that
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bridezilla, he must be a saint
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We will be all at the party! Be there or be square
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He is a reserved, taciturn person
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Smoko
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Stylishly tousled haircuts
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A droll, ironic way
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An endearingly playful manner
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A sharp, deadpan wit
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A point of contention
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They banter back and forth happily
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Marriages are buffeted by many things
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Newlyweds
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My head began to swim
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She suddenly blurted out, “I can’t do it.”
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I wonder if they will hit the seven-year wall
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Uncouth tourists from China
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Shouting abuse at officers escalates into political row
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Scuffles broke out between supporters and detractors of her
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Erupt into chaos
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Storm the stage
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An all-out effort
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The cited legal concerns may be a pretext for some regulators to try to retain their grip on the financial sector
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Resuscitate the site
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A first-rate swimmer and medal winner
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That left the organ on the verge of failure
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The machine was not up to take the load off the heart
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A blood clot
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The story proves, though, that when the chips are down, humanity is not in short supply here
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Favours were called in
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Athletes with a range of physical and intellectual disabilities as well as able-bodied participants
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His record speaks volumes for his determination
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We must all pitch in and do our part
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He has to walk in crutches
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Don’t put things off, go out there and do it today
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It contains a wealth of very telling information
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See laundry neatly stacked in a hamper
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We knew she must be in pain, despite her stoic attitude
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The telling traces of emotion that flit across one person’s face
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The hint of stress picked up in the sweat glands of the palm
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A subtle tone that creeps into an exchange
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He comes at the issue sideways
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He comes at it head-on
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Crabs walk sideways
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Very brief snippets of conversation
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Shoddy medical care
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The tumour metastasized
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The delayed diagnosis
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It can tell us an awful lot
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A sliver of cheese
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In 1983, Hanks was then a virtual unknown
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He has a curious ringing in his ears
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The sultry late summer weather had brought swarms of insects
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On a brisk spring evening
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Edward had only a smattering of Welsh
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Her golden tresses tumbled about her face
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Her lustrous brunette tresses
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Speed dating is the distillation of dating to a simple snap judgement
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He is just a wham-bam kind of jerk
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The relative merits of arranged marriages and love marriages
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A wry sense of humour
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It just dawned on me
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He stumped back into the house
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The president stumped for Republican candidates
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The police are too busy soaking up the adulation from their supporters to do their job
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China can’t keep its claws off Hong Kong
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Goons and thugs
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Tell people one side if the coin and try to scratch out the other side
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Distract attention from the real issue by raising the spectre of foul language
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He kept on butting in with silly comments
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He will be caught in the middle
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They caught me by surprise
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Denial by governments is hypocrisy at best and evil at worst
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The negation of one of the terms implies the assertion of the other
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Work in tandem
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HSBC shares set to fall in Hong Kong after profits miss forecasts
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Botulism scare prompts baby formula recall
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The government was alarmed by an outbreak of unrest
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A floor mop
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A viral video has incensed political rivals and stoked social tensions
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As the Chinese saying goes, a single spark can start a prairie fire
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The half-day standoff degenerated into a brawl at one point
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Social tensions are running so high that …
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Lost her temper and shouted abuse at police
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She trespassed onto a cordoned-off police area, jabbed her finger at a policewoman and shouted abusive language at her
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Falun Gong is outlawed on the mainland but tolerated in Hong Kong
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Now the saga has taken on a new dimension, turning into a confrontation between pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps
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They were cooking with lard instead of the much healthier olive oil
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A whopping 41 percent of their calories came from fat
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Police combed the area for the murder weapon
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Present long rows of data arrayed in complex charts
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Please fair as slightly amended
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Canadian hockey is a meritocracy
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Joseph rose to become the pharaoh’s right-hand man
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She plucked a blade of grass
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Brambles plucked at her jeans
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Recruits are selected on merit, not through political patronage
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No rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured
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What he was seeing was not chance occurrence but an iron law of sth
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He lunged at me with a knife
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He was knocked down by the onrush of water
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He now has almost a year as minister under his belt
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The differences have evened out
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The deck is stacked against you
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We miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung
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The would level the playing field
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He had a knack for scoring goals at an early age
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Dear John letter
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Big supermarkets can undercut all rivals, especially small high-street shops
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The whole affair smacks of mismanagement and incompetence
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I bought the cutest baby clothes to take to Mary’s baby shower
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Queen bee
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Eye candy
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It is just another episode in an ongoing saga of marriage problems
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Take roundabout routes to avoid detection
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A feeling of d?j? vu
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Stop phubbing = phone + snub
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Meager arms
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He could not support his family on his meager salary
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This will knock London off its perch as Europe’s leading financial centre
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She was sentenced to two years in jail for committing perjury (= telling lies in a law court)
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Emancipation of a slave
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The use of onomatopoeia for literary effect, e.g. cuckoo, sizzle, bang, clank, tinkle, miaow, splash, cuckoo, peewit, curlew, whoosh, thud, crack, ring, wheeze, howl, rumble
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Postural and proxemic signs
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Point the soles of my feet at the PM
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A slimy mess of squashed fruit
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He popped his clogs last week
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He fell hook, line, and sinker for this year’s April Fool joke
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This book is not intended to propound a body of theory
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There is a bias towards descriptive coverage at the expense of theoretical rigour
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They do not by any means form watertight compartments
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The drunk man slurred his words
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Suspended prison sentences
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He walked out the court house a free man
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Soccer heavyweight
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Esprit de corps
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I found the book so gripping that I couldn’t put it down
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Coaster
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What set her apart from other candidates for the job was that she has a lot of original ideas
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Bring/ take sb down a peg
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Chase the skirt
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Defuse a bomb
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
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Head over heels
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She’s got a body like a coke bottle
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She is a real knockout!
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Every Jack has a Jill
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He is nobody, you know
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I agree with you - I agree to your proposal
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As meek as a lamb
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Speak badly of sb
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As you please
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Give me a hand here if you are at a loose end
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Someone you want to grow old with
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I’ve decided to quit the bachelor’s club
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You are made for each other
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May peace, health, happiness and bright future attend you forever
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Standing in front of the mirror she tweaked a strand of hair into place
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Fast roping from a helicopter
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Counterinsurgency cops
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The floodgates have opened
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Vertigo, tinnitus, occasionally blistering and flaking of the skin
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Use some bricks to weigh it down
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It is possible to improve facial contour by augmenting the cheekbones, the chin, the jaw-line or any other area that lacks definition
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It is a catch-all term
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A statement that defies argument
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He reaps the expected applause
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His book is just a ragbag of unsupported opinions
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The two cultures were so utterly disparate that she found it hard to adapt from one to the other
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The carpenter slanted the roof to allow water to run off
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A perforated wall
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He held his audience spellbound
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With the deepest sympathies allow me to inform you of the sad demise of sb
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Become a beacon of business education
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With the passing of Lee, Hong Kong has lost one of its most exemplary citizens
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Return the favour!
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They were all frisked at the airport
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She’s been having a fling with her boss
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I tried to mollify her by giving her flowers
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I don’t mean to pry into your relationship
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Still up?
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She loves to have some small talk with her neighbour
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The government continues to fudge the issue by refusing to give exact figures
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I started to feel queasy as soon as the boat left the harbour
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A big barn
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If I eat it, my stomach bloats up
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He managed to eke out a living one summer by selling drinks on a beach
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Bite the hand that feeds you
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All bark and no bite
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Fall head over heels for sb
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He gave a radiant smile when he heard her news
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Fray around/at the edges
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Hong Kong’s politicians are unlikely to jump into the fray, unless they are themselves clean and monogamous
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Spark a media furore
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Marital deceit was rife
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Conning tower
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Smash and grab burglars snatched watches from TST shop
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Smash their way into
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Security guards were alerted to their presence
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The fat-finger error at the brokerage is the cause of a mysterious spike in the stock market
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Some large-cap Chinese stocks rocketed, stoking speculation of a trading glitch
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That sent the stock plunging more than 8%
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I’m afraid we can’t meet till Wednesday - I’m tied up on Monday and Tuesday
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He is tied up in a meeting at the moment
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He’s spiced up his speech with a few rude jokes
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Corny jokes
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Femme fatale
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I can’t help but notice …
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Passing hour
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A moonless pitch-black night
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The players displayed a swashbuckling confidence
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She was nearly demented with worry when her son didn’t come home
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To your heart’s content
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I have wracked my mind and heart for
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Not an ennobling experience
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I had failed on an epic scale
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Inflict evils on humankind
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Monolithic state-run organizations
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Fight close quarter with bears
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The constant whine of the machinery jangled his nerves
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It is quite heart-thumping to …
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When you rush things, you make mistakes
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Do not let go the rope
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This is the best method known to man
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Give it a rinse
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Several large tree overhang the path
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A lumpy bed
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You sound husky - do you have a cold?
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Local princeling
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I’ve got a huge backlog of work to do
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The fever receded
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The lesion has become scab
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Shall I take the liberty to make a request?
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No need to see us off
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Bestow a marriage
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I will judge you anew
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Keep your chin up
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Burn you off
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Stop making wild guesses
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I will make amends
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Seeing is believing
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