I. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a great many/a good many/very many (= a very large number )
▪
Most of the young men went off to the war, and a great many never came back.
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It all happened a good many years ago.
at the (very) least (= not less than and probably much more than )
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It would cost $1 million at the very least.
at the very most (= he was probably younger )
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The boy looked nine at the very most .
at/from the very beginning (= used for emphasis )
▪
He had been lying to me from the very beginning.
by its very nature
▪
Capitalist society is by its very nature unstable.
deeply/very/profoundly moving
▪
Bayman’s book about his illness is deeply moving.
deeply/very/really shocked
▪
We are all deeply shocked by what’s happened.
highly/most/very unlikely
▪
It’s highly unlikely that he’ll survive.
highly/very accomplished
▪
a highly accomplished designer
highly/very dangerous
▪
it was a highly dangerous situation.
in a (very) real sense (= used to emphasise that a statement or description is true )
▪
The truth is that in a very real sense most families in Britain are not poor.
like...very much
▪
She’s a lovely girl and I like her very much .
most/very likely
▪
I’d very likely have done the same thing in your situation.
not so hot/not very hot informal (= not very good )
▪
Some of the tracks on the record are great, but others are not so hot.
not too/not very/not that keen on sth
▪
She likes Biology, but she’s not too keen on Physics.
not very
▪
The food is not very good there.
not very/too sure
▪
Make a list of any words or phrases whose meaning you are not too sure about.
only a very few (= not many )
▪
There are only a very few exceptions.
quite/very often
▪
I quite often go to Paris on business.
quite/very/perfectly properly
▪
People are, quite properly, proud of their homes.
sth's very existence
▪
The university's very existence is at stake.
Thank you very much
▪
Thank you very much , Brian.
Thanks very much
▪
Thanks very much for your help.
the exact/same/very spot
▪
the exact spot where the king was executed
the very best
▪
He’s one of the very best players around.
the very epitome of
▪
He was the very epitome of evil.
the very essence of (= she seems very kind )
▪
She seems the very essence of kindness .
the very moment (= used for emphasizing that something happened at a particular time )
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I could tell something was wrong from the very moment I walked in through the front door.
the very opposite (= exactly the opposite )
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Exercise does not increase the appetite - in fact, the very opposite is true.
the very same (= the same person or thing and not a different one – used to emphasize that what you are saying seems surprising )
▪
We stood in front of the very same house in which Shakespeare wrote his plays.
the very thought (= even the idea of doing something )
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The very thought of going on stage made her feel ill.
very different
▪
Our sons are very different from each other.
Very few
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Very few of the staff come from the local area.
very like
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He’s very like his brother.
very little
▪
The situation has improved very little .
very little
▪
There’s very little money left.
very loving
▪
He’s very loving and affectionate with his sister.
very much in love
▪
They were obviously very much in love.
very much like
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My experience is very much like that described in the book.
very much
▪
We very much regret that there will be job losses.
very much
▪
She very much wanted to do the right thing.
very much
▪
The house was very much as I’d remembered it.
very much
▪
Thank you very much !
very much
▪
I’m feeling very much better, thank you.
very nearly
▪
He very nearly died.
very occasionally (= rarely )
▪
We only see each other very occasionally .
very popular
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She was a very popular teacher.
very responsive
▪
I tried to get him talking, but he wasn’t very responsive .
very rich
▪
He is a very rich man.
very similar
▪
I was in a very similar situation not so long ago.
very top
▪
The book I wanted was at the very top of the pile.
very wrong
▪
Something is very wrong.
very/deeply hurt
▪
Alice was deeply hurt that she hadn’t been invited.
very/deeply unhappy
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The Government was deeply unhappy about criticism from the press.
very/deeply/highly unpopular
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This bill is deeply unpopular with the rest of the Republican establishment.
very/extremely expensive
▪
We ate at a very expensive restaurant.
very/extremely violent
▪
an extremely violent attack
very/extremely/immensely/fabulously etc wealthy
▪
He left as a poor, working class boy and returned as a wealthy man.
very/extremely/immensely/highly etc complicated
▪
Mental illness is a very complicated subject.
very/extremely/incredibly simple
▪
I came up with a very simple answer to this problem.
very/extremely/quite/pretty etc clever
▪
Lucy is quite clever and does well at school.
very/highly suitable ( also eminently suitable formal )
▪
This exercise is very suitable for back pain sufferers.
very/highly/eminently readable
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The book is informative and highly readable.
very/highly/extremely competent
▪
She’s a highly competent linguist.
very/highly/extremely likely
▪
It did not seem very likely that he was still alive.
very/highly/extremely suggestible
▪
At that age, kids are highly suggestible.
very/highly/most satisfactory
▪
After her initial difficulties she has made a very satisfactory recovery.
very/most probably
▪
The building will be replaced, most probably by a modern sports centre.
very/most unfair
▪
We live in a very unfair world.
very/most/highly unusual
▪
Gandhi was a most unusual politician.
very/quite often
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Very often children who behave badly at school have problems at home.
very/really proud
▪
Your family must be very proud of you.
very/really scared
▪
By this time I was feeling really scared.
very/really surprised
▪
I would be very surprised if that was the case.
very/really worried
▪
We were really worried about him during the divorce.
your very own (= used to add more emphasis )
▪
One day I want to have a horse of my very own.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
clever
▪
People could be fooled because these types were very clever strategists, especially when they became bored.
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And the people who can play them are very clever indeed.
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The child psychologists have gotten very clever .
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Work hard at all your reading, you are very clever about it.
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If they go in and it turns out not to be very clever , the referendum covers their backs.
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It was all very clever , really, because all the wedding presents had just more or less run out.
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I assured her that I was laughing because I was happy to be with them and because the story-teller was very clever .
close
▪
You do business with my daddy, you're very close to him in that way.
▪
Healing with a launch failure A failure very close to the ground frequently results in damage.
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She provides her own examples of sudden changes in behaviour, some of which are very close to Pope's characters.
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Rod himself admits that he's been very close to arrest.
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He looked as if he'd taken both barrels into his chest at very close range.
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He and the other Officers must have been very close to the shell burst!
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More recently, philosophy has had very close links with mathematics and artificial intelligence.
dangerous
▪
They have false floors, so beware, it is very dangerous to climb down into them!
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The soldiers were both terrified and amused at this very dangerous snake wriggling around, and eventually, they dispatched it.
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The Ford driver was furious and trying to regain his place, a very dangerous manoeuvre.
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She laughed and said that, yes, it was very dangerous but what to do?
▪
Evasion of this kind, though most understandable because of the hurt at the root of things, is potentially very dangerous .
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The thing is, left in the wrong hands, truth can be very , very dangerous .
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They were once thought to be very dangerous indeed and believed to steal infants for the Devil to torment in Hell.
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Dangerous discussion Your magazine is potentially very dangerous.
different
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The interplay of these very different personalities with Beckett's mercurial temperament results in fascinating and varied music.
▪
In the midst of her momentary relief, she knows everything is very different .
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Not only do they taste different , but they are very different in their performance when it comes to washing.
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Sexy as hell, actually, each in a very different way, although equally vivid.
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For what followed was very different .
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Geographically distant sites are characterized by very different faunas.
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Phonic, phonetic Sometimes these words are used interchangeably, but they have very different meanings.
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First, he had to commit to some very different budgeting and spending habits.
difficult
▪
This part of the Act has been strongly criticized and to some extent misused for a minority of very difficult cases.
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It was very difficult to move him.
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This patination is very difficult to induce artificially.
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It is very difficult to see why two adjacent planets should accrete such radically different materials.
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They are both fit and active but I find it very difficult to keep their weight up.
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It's a deceptively simple idea that's very difficult to put into practice.
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He said he'd done a wonderful job in very difficult circumstances.
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Again, without this design for integration it will be very difficult to achieve the expected gains of databases and information systems.
far
▪
Adults won't get very far in trying to help some one unless they find out what their reasons are.
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Generally speaking, people did not move very far .
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But comparison with the press can not go very far .
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Behaviour is very far from being disorderly.
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So far these are very far from being boom times.
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But their accumulation is very far from the complicated truth.
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He had not got very far with Pilger's list.
funny
▪
He was very funny in it.
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I think all this is very funny .
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His character sketches of the principal players are sharp, perceptive and often very funny .
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For children, the idea of men dressing up as women and vice versa is very funny .
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Singer can, after all, be very funny .
▪
He isn't a very funny man.
good
▪
The very best product to smooth the cuticle and help mend the split ends is Pure Gloss.
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But beneath that unpromising cover is some very good reading.
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There's also a very good children's clothes shop nearby which deals in second-hand baby equipment.
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Nor were they very good weapons.
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And for very good if slightly mean-spirited reasons.
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Mr. David Howell I am sure that that is a very good definition.
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Mr. Clark My hon. Friend makes a very good point.
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So do I. There are two very good courts here.
happy
▪
Whilst being very happy in a secretarial role I would like to widen my scope.
▪
I was very happy in a professional sense, and I found community life as sustaining as community life can be.
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We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and wish her a very happy retirement.
▪
We were very happy in our little hotel room.
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I've been very happy with my little Cathy.
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We were very happy that things were coming back and getting better.
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Male speaker I was delighted, very happy .
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Carbed to the max, we were very happy with our choices.
hard
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It was true that it was very hard to work in the public baths.
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Or they work very hard and watch their children and wait for their men.
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In all of this Boy was trying very hard , so very hard that it was touching to watch.
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As a result of this, she had a very hard time giving birth, and I was blue.
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The other metal used for anti-tank rounds is tungsten, which is also very hard and dense.
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Parenting is romantic and fun, but it is also very hard work.
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Subcultural ownership of music is very hard to protect.
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We tried very hard to get him out of here.
high
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But comfort is vital - so avoid very tight waistbands, very high collars or shoes which pinch.
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In fact, the morale of the crew was very high , if morale was the right word.
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To read in such a small bar code successfully requires a very high degree of resolution.
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If the possible reward is very high , I would put money into a business that could fail. 4.
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The Bank does not provide assistance and interest rates could rise very high indeed.
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It has a very high viscosity which requires that it be raised to about 250-F to pump and spray into the furnace.
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This rapid transmission of pictorial output demands very high speed links.
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Sara, a woman in her late forties, had achieved a very high position in public relations.
hot
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Drawbacks: The exterior walls get very hot during combination cooking.
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And taking a bath in very hot water after you drink it.
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She noticed that it was getting very hot all of a sudden.
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Pequin: A family of small chilies, yellow to orange in color, that are very hot .
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The spectral types were given letters of the alphabet, as follows: O: very hot stars, greenish-white or bluish-white.
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It was very hot and the house was still.
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When we woke on the Friday it was very hot .
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When done and still very hot , place half a marshmallow on each cookie.
important
▪
However, it is a very important issue whose educational implications require considerable deliberation.
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This is quite true, given the existence of some very important necessary conditions.
▪
When describing the person in question, a reference to physical appearance is often made showing that physical appearance is very important .
▪
This analysis is very important since the bodies of the incorruptibles have been erroneously classified by many as natural mummies.
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The professors realized that I was doing very important work, and so they gave me my own laboratory.
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However, if this type of phenomenon is not very important , then our hypothesis remains valid.
▪
For most of the time he combined this with the very important post of deputy treasurer-at-wars.
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You have become very important to me, Mistah Wilson.
large
▪
In general, consecutive spill should be considered for low packing densities and/or very large bucket sizes.
▪
The worker must straddle and stretch across the distances, often very large distances.
▪
But aren't we going to need a very large toothbrush.
▪
It seems most likely, in fact, that primitive life arose and was destroyed several times over by very large impacts.
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A very large proportion had been there before and would be there again.
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Picture your garden bed of cucumbers, a very large patch of them, a bumper crop.
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There are many markets where the cost of entry is very large .
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It had the proportions of a very large grand hotel such as the Plaza-very bulky and very low.
likely
▪
Some of the houses were very likely in poor condition.
▪
In order that Compacts eventually do become self financing it is very likely that employers will be asked to contribute to central costs.
▪
Absorption from such sites is very likely to be erratic, leading to poorly controlled diabetes and possibly unexplained hypoglycaemia.
▪
Tina would very likely laugh and clap or even stroke the bear.
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I was only on the waiting list anyway and it wasn't very likely that four people would drop out.
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Indeed, it is very likely that the process varies with the relationship between the carer and dependant.
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At the time Sinha thought it wasn't very likely and forgot about it.
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It wasn't very likely that he was going to want to get involved again, was it?
little
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There was also very little demand for help on legal matters and employment issues.
▪
And Frye had very little confidence in his ability to transform attitudes.
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The island is beginning to see an increase in foreign visitors, but as yet very little development has taken place.
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Handling the raft required very little attention.
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Well, we have very little choice, in my opinion.
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At that point there was very little construction going on on the site.
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He knew very little about tests done on blood from bones, only that they could be carried out.
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At the moment, very little indeed.
long
▪
Clearly this is consistent both with a period of about a day and with a very long period.
▪
His music will continue to be performed for a very long time.
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It was a long shot, very long.
▪
Our Social Security system has already attached a very long string to generations of children for support of their parents' generation.
▪
The arms are very long , greater than seven times the disk diameter.
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There was only one day, wasn't there, or did they have days here but they were just very long ?
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They were enjoying themselves immensely; the lines were all very long , and it was cool in the post office.
low
▪
A small part of law work, and that of a very low status, is concerned with the working class.
▪
Piot said the commitment to very low drug prices is only one step in a complex process.
▪
The extremes of a statistical distribution represent unpredictably rare individual events, which have very low values of statistical probability.
▪
I am a fan of index funds, especially because their management fees tend to be very low .
▪
However, these are for the most part of very low quality and certainly can not meet the needs of the poorest sectors.
▪
We had been fighting hard that day, and all of us were very low on ammunition.
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Wages were pitiful and despite recovering somewhat in certain sectors in the last years before the war, they remained very low .
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Rural counties such as Gwynedd suffer particularly since they often have very low density settlements, rugged terrain and relatively poor roads.
nice
▪
He looked very nice in it and he did win the contest, so Ken did know what he was doing.
▪
Catera is a very nice package.
▪
I shall vote Tory because Mr Major is a very , very nice man.
▪
This kid had, at fifteen, two girlfriends, four children, a Mercedes-Benz, and some very nice clothes.
▪
You know, Meatloaf has a very nice pair.
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But yes, it is a very nice model.
▪
They say the beach down there is very nice .
popular
▪
A Yellow Tangs are very popular aquarium fish and many hobbyists try to keep them in shoals.
▪
Instead, you were supposed to leave food for him, which should make his job very popular .
▪
These are very popular with people gathering from towns and villages from miles around.
▪
It was very popular at the time.
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Today the railway attracts many tourists to the area, and is very popular with ramblers.
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It seems to be a very popular material.
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A very popular day excursion is to the Isles of Scilly, either by helicopter or ferry.
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This modern 3 star hotel has proved very popular with our guests and is well recommended.
real
▪
My involvement with separatism lasted five years, but in a very real sense it will never leave me.
▪
What parents do not realize is that they are a very real presence in any school.
▪
In a very real sense, though not the sense they were expecting, the kingdom had come in power.
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In fact, both practically and philosophically our reality often turns out not to be very real .
▪
It was basic, primitive and very , very real .
▪
In a very real sense, payment of dividends represents a choice between future capital gains and current cash payments.
▪
In our desire to become the architects of our own evolution, we risk the very real possibility of losing our humanity.
▪
That relationship is very real and very strong.
short
▪
In certain cases the law imposes very short time limits within which you must act.
▪
It is a typical aquatic plant with a very short rhizome; stems are very thin, rooting or floating in water.
▪
Everybody was surprised to see Anne with very short hair, but no one learned the secret.
▪
It lasted a very short time.
▪
At church the Vicar, Mr Nicolson, preached only a very short sermon.
▪
The plants have a very short , branching stem.
▪
The first is very short duration, maximum output attacks.
▪
The third isotope of hydrogen, hydrogen-3 or tritium, is highly radioactive and has a very short half-life.
similar
▪
All Silver punchcard machines are very similar .
▪
Three small NEAs have spectra very similar to those of basaltic achondrites and of the asteroid Vesta.
▪
This is very similar to the probit findings.
▪
At first a very similar system seemed to apply to monkeys and apes.
▪
At Hales Nurseries near Bournemouth, which took in over fifty children, conditions were very similar to those at Bydown.
▪
Subject coverage of all volumes is very similar and publication is on an annual or biennial basis.
▪
There is a rare Brittany breed which is very similar to the Guernsey and possibly formed the ancestral stock.
▪
Dzerzhinsky frequently thought of the railway network in very similar terms.
simple
▪
A modern multi-storey office block is a very simple design.
▪
Such knowledge can be very simple , and all the more pertinent for that.
▪
In his opinion, while the Smalltalk syntax is very simple , its simplicity obscures simple programming tasks.
▪
In sum, hypertext is a very simple concept based on the association of nodes through links.
▪
Even as this problem forms itself in my head it is superseded by its very simple and obvious solution.
▪
A few processing elements by themselves do very simple tasks.
small
▪
It was a very small company - only 23 employees - and my brother Neil was already working there.
▪
The pilot sat behind the gunner, offering a very small forward profile.
▪
In 1988 it allowed thirteen very small parties to secure 41 of the Knesset's 120 seats.
▪
And our chances are very small .
▪
The number of suppliers doing really substantial amounts of business with libraries is very small .
▪
It was a very small explosion, but it reverberated loudly and quickly across Washington.
▪
It sounds very small in relation to the costs of war, but so do most budgets.
▪
At the Mondrian, newest of the designer hotels by Philippe Starck, guests are made to feel very small .
strong
▪
We will be making a very strong plea to them.
▪
It has to be very strong , because real estate can go unoccupied for a period of time.
▪
Penguin's strength is of course in its enormous bookshop area, and it is very strong in my High-flyer league.
▪
That relationship is very real and very strong .
▪
The Bookman didn't look very strong .
▪
Patient response to the program was very strong and positive, and the program continued very successfully for two years.
▪
She wasn't young but she was very strong .
▪
I had some very strong experiences there, which I also find hard to talk about.
useful
▪
The method has nevertheless proved very useful .
▪
The tone scale is very useful and is a good guide.
▪
They clearly did not see it as very useful to them.
▪
Thornton had good contacts as well, and proved very useful in arranging meetings.
▪
Conciliation officers are very useful for advising employers of the tasks before them at a tribunal hearing.
▪
A reputation for being exclusive is not very useful in a market where success depends on recruiting large numbers.
▪
But whatever his motives, he soon realized that he had tapped a very useful vein of information in Ted Morgan.
▪
The developing audio technology to position a sound in three-dimensional space will become very useful .
young
▪
Such vision is an unusual attribute, but one which the artist maintains has been with him since a very young age.
▪
We are still the caregivers of the very young and the very old.
▪
It's a very young role and she has to lead the gypsy dance routine.
▪
In most states, courts hold that very young children are incapable of contributory negligence.
▪
All the girls were skilled at farm work, work they had done since they were very young .
▪
They were tough, highly trained volunteers in the Airborne, but some looked very young to me.
▪
While children were very young it was possible to muddle through.
▪
The easiest way to ensure this was to choose a very young woman, still in her teens.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at the (very) least
▪
But, at the very least , we want to be cut in on the deal.
▪
Each tier was held in place by tiny press studs which sprang apart at the least pressure.
▪
He threw noisy tantrums at the least provocation.
▪
I suppose I had expected anger, an outburst of violence, at the very least surprise and furious disbelief.
▪
I was sure, at the very least , that diet does had done thousands of women like me no good.
▪
Obviously, organic does signify better, or at the least an improvement, but the buyer must beware.
▪
People's lives could be at stake, or at the very least their futures.
▪
That there should be, at the least , periodic review.
I don't feel too hot/so hot/very hot
a (very/completely/entirely) different animal
▪
But as I take my very first step on to the ground she becomes a very different animal .
▪
Each dancer had to assume the actions of a different animal .
▪
I was a Territorial, a very different animal .
▪
My second example, although involving a very different animal , raises the same kind of questions.
▪
So in Utah now, Rivendell is really a different animal .
▪
You should repeat each test at least ten times using a different animal of the same kind for each test.
at the (very) outside
▪
At the same time, more IBMers were encouraged to look at the outside via secondments or community links.
▪
From a three-hour flight, at the outside , when he'd only flown from London to Helsinki on the last lap?
▪
George is tall, red-haired, freckled, with deep squint lines at the outside corners of his blue eyes.
▪
I settled myself at the outside table and sipped my coffee, trying to get my bearings.
▪
Look at the outside and don't be fooled by appearances.
▪
Looking at the outside of this building.
▪
Picasso aimed his passion at the outside world.
▪
The second turning starts at the outside edge turning the whole field including the double row towards the hedgerow.
be the (very/living/spitting) image of sb
▪
All she had was the image of a woman lying on the ground and people desperate to help her.
▪
And just lagging it slightly was the image of the posed dancer.
▪
But we both agreed the little mite was the spitting image of the man.
▪
It was the image of returning once again to her empty maisonette in Ealing.
▪
My favorite is the image of an aproned cook in the rear of the open kitchen.
▪
Pressing upon the rest of us is the image of all those dormant scars in the crust potentially surging to life.
▪
This is the image of a successful couple.
▪
Throughout the show's history, for instance, Cleese was the very image of pompous, impatient rectitude.
before your very eyes
▪
Get them by blasting the goose-neck helicopter that assembles itself before your very eyes !
▪
He hadn't even touched her, yet she was in severe danger of coming unglued before his very eyes .
▪
He unzipped his fly and peed before their very eyes .
▪
It isn't even about having him perform them for us before our very eyes , on demand.
▪
Michael plans to prepare complete meals before your very eyes .
▪
One hundred and fifty years of glamour sitting on a stool right before your very eyes , that's what she was.
▪
The pounds, shillings and pence were dancing before her very eyes .
can't very well (do sth)
from the (very) first
▪
The relationship was doomed to failure from the first .
▪
Although the data from the first study are still being analysed, initial results are promising.
▪
By 1990, only Sir Geoffrey Howe survived from the first cabinet.
▪
His watch, his ring, his money and his suitcase neatly packed had all been sent from the first hotel.
▪
Research and design skills can be electronically brought in from the first world.
▪
The follow up study was restricted to participants from the first study who were 25 to 74 years of age at baseline.
▪
The main concern over the century was to shift as much as possible from the first to the second form.
▪
The second word is the noun formed from the first word, the verb.
▪
This performance needed more pace, a lighter touch throughout from the orchestra and much greater clarity from the first violins.
it's/that's all very well, but ...
just the thing/the very thing
not very savoury/none too savoury
the (very) stuff of dreams/life/politics
▪
But such philosophical dissent, at this point, is the stuff of dreams in a dreamworld.
▪
How does a political system handle the incredibly difficult and complicated value allocations that are the stuff of politics?
▪
Our ideas and hopes for the future are the stuff of life.
▪
This was the stuff of life.
▪
Within this realm the stuff of dreams and nightmares can coalesce from the very air.
very funny!
▪
Oh, that's very funny . I know you're in there.
▪
Very funny ! Who hid my car keys?
very good
▪
He did, of course benefit from having a very good defence.
▪
He had a very good sense of who he is.
▪
Herta continues to be very good , or at least very silent, about my impotence.
▪
In my heart I was fiercely competitive: I wanted to be the very best at anything I cared about.
▪
It would have to be the very best , and by a healthy margin.
▪
No one is very bad, but no one is very good .
▪
The very best numbers were numbers like 20, 23, 30, 40, 57, 75, 105 and 155.
very well
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well .
▪
It was all very well to be indignant, but she had driven him away.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well .
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
"Was it a good movie?" "Yes, very ."
▪
Carter went to the very best schools.
▪
During our time working together I got to know her very well.
▪
Everything was happening very quickly, and I don't remember it all.
▪
It's very cold outside.
▪
Juan is a very good dancer.
▪
Sid gets embarrassed very easily.
▪
The ambassador made a brief statement, saying that the talks had been very productive.
▪
The two brothers died on the very same day.
▪
There is a very real possibility that two stores will have to be closed.
▪
This meeting is very important, so be on time.
▪
Your house is very different from the way I'd imagined it.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Clearly this is consistent both with a period of about a day and with a very long period.
▪
He was a very physical person and I recall as a child lying on his chest.
▪
I see this very clearly underneath your politeness.
▪
I was not stupid, but I was very lazy.
▪
Olive trees especially may embody the Goddess, for they live a very long time.
▪
Only the very old people remembered Albert Porter, and their eyesight was no better than their memory.
▪
These are very much right-brain tasks, involving both that posterior parietal area and a region of frontal lobe.
▪
When I was in high school, I was always very thin.
II. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
beginning
▪
He was a strong and greedy monarch who pursued a course of military aggrandisement from the very beginning of his reign.
▪
This time she started to interrogate me from the very beginning .
▪
They are born into a nexus of interactions and relationships that shape the expression of their own needs from the very beginning .
▪
This had been on the cards from the very beginning .
▪
What was there in the very beginning ?
▪
All of a sudden they realised they had been tricked from the very beginning .
▪
I opposed it from the very beginning .
centre
▪
How different Oxford was from Nebraska ... Oxford, the very centre of intellectual life.
▪
In the very centre of the village, close to the church, was the blacksmith's forge.
▪
Indeed it had and the Nonconformist minister stood at the very centre of the Nonconformist world we are discussing.
▪
But I can find my way to the very centre of it.
▪
The infrared picture is at 10 times the scale of the optical photograph, showing only the very centre of the galaxy.
▪
As for myself, she was the very centre of my life.
▪
The ark of the covenant At the very centre of this whole divinely-dictated religion was the ark.
day
▪
And the Vatican has held the secret to this very day .
▪
The previous autumn, the muggy monsoon heat had begun to diminish on the very day following the festival of Dusshera.
▪
I can remember their faces clearly to this very day .
▪
She would do her job - and do it well right until the very day when she left the company.
▪
Suddenly there was a flurry of activity, their bags were packed hurriedly and they were to leave that very day .
▪
I remember the very day she met Mr Hawker, here in Manchester - don't you, Pru?
edge
▪
He sat down again on the very edge of the chair and they drank the tea in silence.
▪
At their very edges the sea encroaches far in at roughly twelve and a half hour intervals, and then retreats.
▪
They plunged over the very edge of the human capacity to feel.
▪
The monastery has a beautiful situation, on the very edge of the river Olt in fine mountain country.
▪
Loretta perched herself uncomfortably on the very edge of the jacket.
▪
But equally you can create suspense out of going to the very edge .
▪
She glanced down, to discover she was hugging the very edge of the mattress.
end
▪
Yet Hassan was at the very end of his patience.
▪
My particular concern is the very ends of the fingers - or, the nails.
▪
He told her so at the very end .
▪
The village church, tucked away at the very end of a winding leafy lane, is dedicated to St Mary.
essence
▪
Atheism for Marxism is not an optional extra or a mere facet but the very essence of it.
▪
These distortions are the very essence of prejudice, and it is hardly surprising that conflict with Peter had arisen.
▪
Wars were the very essence of the Roman organization.
▪
In Richard, she had the very essence of his father.
▪
The second assumption is the very essence of self development.
▪
It is, indeed, politically more difficult for it threatens the very essence of capitalism.
▪
Yet movement is the very essence of being human and of the human condition which policing sets out to nullify.
▪
Plato argued that to know yourself was the very essence of knowledge.
existence
▪
He also recognises that in a free society values may develop which are alien to its very existence .
▪
First, there is the obvious point that the very existence of private legislation procedure may not necessarily be recognised.
▪
Its birthday - its very existence - is being celebrated in a new book by Susan Basnett.
▪
So, for example, the very existence of a product range is, in itself, a selling point for a product.
▪
Instead of cooperation we have a destructive form of conflict in a social system whose very existence depends on cooperation.
▪
Feeling conspicuous - embarrassed about my very existence but resentful of what had happened.
▪
If it were to do so, the very existence of the currency union would be placed in jeopardy.
fact
▪
It wasn't that I was tempted to eat those convenient nuts, just the very fact of their existence.
▪
But that very fact requires a conventionalist to find a more complex political justification than the one I just described.
▪
Research indicates that behaviour may be altered by the very fact that it is being monitored.
▪
Yet the very fact of taking action was undoubtedly a source of inspiration.
▪
The very fact of suggesting things to people tends to result in inaccuracies.
▪
Two particulars simultaneously occupying two different places are in virtue of this very fact two different particulars.
▪
One respects the authority which is founded on the very fact of being so respected.
heart
▪
How much to vary the product according to the market was a problem which hit at the very heart of the business.
▪
The very heart of Marx's analysis of capitalism therefore rests on the simple but powerful concept that profit is robbery.
▪
Data integration is especially a problem for geographers because information synthesis is at the very heart of the discipline.
▪
Fifteen acres of rich, tropical gardens in the very heart of the city.
▪
It is because this garret is at the very heart of Government.
▪
And here, where we are walking right now, was the very heart of their financial empire.
▪
At the very heart of single capacity was the Stock Exchange's rule-book which effectively blocked significant structural reform.
▪
A home is the very heart of life.
idea
▪
Indeed, for many the very idea of attaining a political focus has been discarded in favour of a celebration of fragmentation.
▪
The very idea of taking drugs disgusted me.
▪
He rejects, it is true, the very idea of consistency in principle as important for its own sake.
▪
But what of the very idea of advertising in a public service system?
▪
I was terrified out of my wits at the very idea .
▪
The very idea is preposterous and I was overjoyed to see that you believed me.
▪
Yet the very idea was gross and implausible.
▪
The very idea of working from home should have been anathema to me.
life
▪
Yet this was very life itself.
▪
One day we may meet that villain, or the many like him, and have to fight for our very lives .
▪
Their very lives would have to be at stake first.
▪
I played as if my very life depended upon it.
▪
His very life might depend on it.
▪
The fight - the very life ! - went out of me.
▪
The future - the very lives - of these children depend on our ability to reach them with vaccines and health education.
▪
In that moment, he had known he could trust her - with his very life , as it were.
moment
▪
She would have stayed asleep, too, if not for the outrageous racket that erupted outside at that very moment .
▪
They were wondering where she was at that very moment .
▪
She knew the offers would disappear again the very moment she tried to take them up.
▪
This was seen at the very moment of James V's death.
▪
Elizabeth played one of her characteristically tantalizing games, and kept him waiting until the very moment of her death.
▪
Strange that David should be coming along at that very moment that she'd emerged on to the main road.
nature
▪
Because of the very nature of desktop publishing this should come as no surprise.
▪
As pointed out above regarding the verbs of perception, nevertheless, the passive is by its very nature resultative.
▪
It goes against the very nature of man today.
▪
By their very nature a complete beginner will find some of the drills rather difficult.
▪
The very nature of their mouths says so. paradoxically, however, surface feeding is part of their nature too.
▪
Personal computers like the Apple are by their very nature easy to learn to use and simple to operate.
▪
By the very nature of the case, the demands of commercial secrecy, this is difficult to research.
▪
He maintained that by its very nature , capitalism involves the exploitation and oppression of the worker.
stuff
▪
Controversy, intrigue, the literary spilling of blood is the very stuff of the Guitarist letters page.
▪
This is the very stuff of college life.
▪
Parades are the very stuff of Protestant politics.
▪
We have looked upon it almost as convertible with thought, of which we have called it the very stuff and process.
▪
What are these other than the very stuff of economic development?
thing
▪
There was an outcry against Hollywood, the very thing Hays and Zukor had tried to avoid.
▪
To be jealous implied an involvement, a relationship, the very things she was fighting against.
▪
This conversation was getting too intimate - the very thing she wanted to avoid.
▪
He then does just that very thing himself!
▪
Tonight he must face the very thing he had always dreaded.
▪
The very thing they had been screaming about for donkeys years.
▪
The movement exposed the very thing she had come expecting to find: a large jute bag.
▪
So he divides men by language barriers, and scatters them abroad - the very thing they were trying to insure against.
thought
▪
My throat hurts again at the very thought !
▪
I was paralysed with fear at the very thought of making eye contact with them, let alone playing the teacher.
▪
The very thought stiffened her body in his arms and she all but scowled at him.
▪
The very thought left him feeling as if there was a great pit where his stomach should be.
▪
Others hate the very thought of them.
▪
Mrs Carrow would have one of those panic attacks at the very thought .
▪
Sometimes the very thought made him feel strangely out of place in the swinging sixties.
▪
The very thought made him feel warm inside.
word
▪
The very word imperialism is modern.
▪
The very word filled the nation with fear.
▪
The very word , whether used as noun or as a verb, is dismissive.
▪
Little Pete and Ellie who used to hang on the very words of Uncle John.
▪
Words like coward, stupid or effeminate should probably never be used unless the client has used that very word himself.
▪
The very word seven or seventh occurs twice seven times in the passage.
▪
Perhaps your very words are what must represent us to posterity.
▪
In logic when you have a problem, the very words of the puzzle contain the answer.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at the (very) least
▪
But, at the very least , we want to be cut in on the deal.
▪
Each tier was held in place by tiny press studs which sprang apart at the least pressure.
▪
He threw noisy tantrums at the least provocation.
▪
I suppose I had expected anger, an outburst of violence, at the very least surprise and furious disbelief.
▪
I was sure, at the very least , that diet does had done thousands of women like me no good.
▪
Obviously, organic does signify better, or at the least an improvement, but the buyer must beware.
▪
People's lives could be at stake, or at the very least their futures.
▪
That there should be, at the least , periodic review.
a (very/completely/entirely) different animal
▪
But as I take my very first step on to the ground she becomes a very different animal .
▪
Each dancer had to assume the actions of a different animal .
▪
I was a Territorial, a very different animal .
▪
My second example, although involving a very different animal , raises the same kind of questions.
▪
So in Utah now, Rivendell is really a different animal .
▪
You should repeat each test at least ten times using a different animal of the same kind for each test.
at the (very) outside
▪
At the same time, more IBMers were encouraged to look at the outside via secondments or community links.
▪
From a three-hour flight, at the outside , when he'd only flown from London to Helsinki on the last lap?
▪
George is tall, red-haired, freckled, with deep squint lines at the outside corners of his blue eyes.
▪
I settled myself at the outside table and sipped my coffee, trying to get my bearings.
▪
Look at the outside and don't be fooled by appearances.
▪
Looking at the outside of this building.
▪
Picasso aimed his passion at the outside world.
▪
The second turning starts at the outside edge turning the whole field including the double row towards the hedgerow.
be the (very/living/spitting) image of sb
▪
All she had was the image of a woman lying on the ground and people desperate to help her.
▪
And just lagging it slightly was the image of the posed dancer.
▪
But we both agreed the little mite was the spitting image of the man.
▪
It was the image of returning once again to her empty maisonette in Ealing.
▪
My favorite is the image of an aproned cook in the rear of the open kitchen.
▪
Pressing upon the rest of us is the image of all those dormant scars in the crust potentially surging to life.
▪
This is the image of a successful couple.
▪
Throughout the show's history, for instance, Cleese was the very image of pompous, impatient rectitude.
before your very eyes
▪
Get them by blasting the goose-neck helicopter that assembles itself before your very eyes !
▪
He hadn't even touched her, yet she was in severe danger of coming unglued before his very eyes .
▪
He unzipped his fly and peed before their very eyes .
▪
It isn't even about having him perform them for us before our very eyes , on demand.
▪
Michael plans to prepare complete meals before your very eyes .
▪
One hundred and fifty years of glamour sitting on a stool right before your very eyes , that's what she was.
▪
The pounds, shillings and pence were dancing before her very eyes .
can't very well (do sth)
from the (very) first
▪
The relationship was doomed to failure from the first .
▪
Although the data from the first study are still being analysed, initial results are promising.
▪
By 1990, only Sir Geoffrey Howe survived from the first cabinet.
▪
His watch, his ring, his money and his suitcase neatly packed had all been sent from the first hotel.
▪
Research and design skills can be electronically brought in from the first world.
▪
The follow up study was restricted to participants from the first study who were 25 to 74 years of age at baseline.
▪
The main concern over the century was to shift as much as possible from the first to the second form.
▪
The second word is the noun formed from the first word, the verb.
▪
This performance needed more pace, a lighter touch throughout from the orchestra and much greater clarity from the first violins.
just the thing/the very thing
the (very) stuff of dreams/life/politics
▪
But such philosophical dissent, at this point, is the stuff of dreams in a dreamworld.
▪
How does a political system handle the incredibly difficult and complicated value allocations that are the stuff of politics?
▪
Our ideas and hopes for the future are the stuff of life.
▪
This was the stuff of life.
▪
Within this realm the stuff of dreams and nightmares can coalesce from the very air.
very well
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well .
▪
It was all very well to be indignant, but she had driven him away.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well .
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
I must have known that those were the very advantages I had been denying myself in denying myself food.
▪
It was this very vision that drew him to a man with whom he had so little in common besides.
▪
One day we may meet that villain, or the many like him, and have to fight for our very lives.
▪
One photograph was of a very beautiful man.
▪
Sandison bought a very fine pale grey hat with a wide, flat brim and a white hatband.
▪
These were the very qualities required in the political arena.
▪
This is a very straight forward part and shouldn't present any problems.