adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a clear/obvious connection
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There is an obvious connection between this painting and his earlier works.
a clear/obvious contrast
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There was a clear contrast between the father and the son.
a clear/obvious correlation
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There is a clear correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.
a clear/obvious/unmistakable sign
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There are clear signs of a slowdown in economic growth.
an obvious conclusion
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All her symptoms led to the obvious conclusion – she was pregnant.
an obvious example
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Our climate is changing at an alarming rate. The melting of the polar ice caps is an obvious example of this.
an obvious exception
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The earliest historical records, with the obvious exception of Chinese, are written in Indo-European languages.
an obvious explanation (= one that is easy to see or notice )
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There is no obvious explanation for his strange behaviour.
an obvious successor
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He doesn't have an obvious successor as leader.
blindingly obvious
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It was blindingly obvious that Max wasn’t interested.
for obvious reasons
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This arrangement must be kept secret, for obvious reasons.
glaringly obvious
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Some of the clues were glaringly obvious .
obvious embarrassment (= clear for other people to see )
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He shuffled his feet around in obvious embarrassment.
obvious reluctance
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‘OK,’ he said, with obvious reluctance.
obvious/evident (= easy to see )
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Spencer was staring at the girl with obvious delight.
painfully obvious/clear/evident/apparent
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It was painfully obvious he’d rather not see her again.
patently obvious
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It’s patently obvious that you’re in love with her.
stating the obvious
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Fine, but aren’t you just stating the obvious here?
the obvious answer
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The obvious answer is to raise taxes, but that would be unpopular.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
fairly
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I think it's fairly obvious why.
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It should be fairly obvious that the choice of air appropriate discount rate is a key decision in the capital budgeting process.
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Many of its effects are fairly obvious and generally acknowledged.
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It should be fairly obvious that the effect of an expense is to decrease owners' equity.
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The need for a high degree of safety should be fairly obvious .
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To Carol Wilson, however, it became fairly obvious that Copeland wanted to sign Sting's publishing to his own company.
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The advantages of using systematic numbering should be fairly obvious .
immediately
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The implications of this remark were not immediately obvious .
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Other political figures are immediately obvious: an embittered Jesse Jackson stand-in.
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Over half a million people have watched the first two Tests and two things are immediately obvious .
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This detail would have been immediately obvious had the slipper been made of glass.
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The distinction between primary and secondary sources will not always be immediately obvious to the pupil.
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As is immediately obvious , a psychotherapy based on this approach is quite different from one based on the older questions.
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Any difference in taste is immediately obvious .
less
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Some are closely related to a specific professional qualification, while in others a vocational orientation is much less obvious .
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What may be less obvious is how time consuming, expensive, and risky it is to alter such arrangements.
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Architecture is less obvious , but it still happens.
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The iron rule of the market has been much less obvious than was the rule of the military during the cold war.
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From the particle point of view the result is less obvious .
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In other places, natural controls on the distribution of animals are less obvious .
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Slightly less obvious but essential to the winding up of the nerve endings is Michael Carr's neglect of his wife.
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Occasionally the targets are less obvious than Percy.
more
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Bolder colours need to be blended smoothly, as faults in application will always be more obvious .
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To most of us, however, nothing is more obvious than that the universe really is quite something.
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Drosera rotundifolia is uncommon and Sphagna are mush less abundant, while Cladonia species and Racomitrium are much more obvious .
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The rest, I fear, is still more obvious .
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Compare this with the rather more obvious open-hand attack to the face.
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Deeper, more obvious onion flavor in every bite than others tried.
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The national summarizes complex social and economic issues where the sources of fury are more obvious .
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Water restriction would lead to more obvious hypertonicity.
most
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The most obvious one would be the will, but murder by advantaged legatees is a risky business.
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Raskin was so protective of these qualities that he fought even the most obvious concessions to granting the machine more power.
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If the brain is a machine, why do the most obvious associations sometimes escape us?
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The most obvious editor was also probably your first teacher.
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It's the most obvious thing to do.
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The most obvious case surrounds the Convention Center arena.
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Among the most obvious categories here are the unskilled, the young, black people and those made redundant from manufacturing.
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The most obvious of these was the tax deductibility of mortgage interest payments.
painfully
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She had resented Eline from the first moment and made her hate of Joe Harries painfully obvious .
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Should the government reduce the actual frequency of tragedies, or should it simply make them less painfully obvious ?
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Statistics aren't necessary to document what is painfully obvious .
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It was soon painfully obvious who the winner was in this contest.
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It was becoming painfully obvious that apart from a brief, overpowering lust there was no reciprocation of her fragile feelings.
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Perhaps the most important of those things seems painfully obvious , at least to wine country insiders.
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It has become even more painfully obvious now.
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For all her cheerfulness it was painfully obvious that she was feeling awful.
pretty
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It's pretty obvious that Kurt Cobain has been running on reserve tanks for most of this Euro-jaunt.
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They were pretty obvious in the old days.
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That's pretty obvious ....
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But it's pretty obvious where that ridiculous attraction came from.
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It was pretty obvious he made the right decision.
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It seems pretty obvious they both attend the same origami evening class.
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Which was pretty obvious , really.
quite
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Well, Malcolm, I said I can't do this any more, it's quite obvious .
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Here it is quite obvious that Yeltsin will not compromise.
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What puzzles a philosopher and taxes his mind to distraction may look completely irrelevant or quite obvious to a businessman.
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A few of the conflicts of interest in the obesity research field seem quite obvious .
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It became quite obvious who really needed spanking.
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When I processed my attitudes towards money, the reasons became quite obvious .
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It was quite obvious where Miss Rose's interests still lay.
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It was quite obvious what was going on.
so
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It was all so obvious he didn't know why he hadn't worked it out before.
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It all seemed so obvious: there was a correct position for every-thing, at all points in the swing.
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The effect Jennifer had on him was so obvious that Ann was amazed he made no attempt to disguise it.
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The human price is not so obvious at first.
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It was so obvious that Alex saw her as second best.
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These principles are so obvious that many organizations overlook them.
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But this made it so obvious who had sent this copy that he was astonished that it had been sent at all.
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But he had let it become so obvious that the civic leaders were complaining.
too
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Nigel couldn't really review the stories himself - that would look too obvious .
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But the movie tells the wrong story, getting detoured into a murder investigation whose solution is far too obvious .
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They did not want it to be too obvious , since observing the search would provide them with great amusement.
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Evidently, however, the landing zone was too obvious , and the enemy was prepared.
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Some may complain that such tricks are too obvious .
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The rest of us waited to see what would happen, tryIng not to make our interest too obvious .
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It's too obvious to need saying, but I wonder whether we think of it enough.
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Something to make me laugh without being too obvious .
very
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Here we have a K-type supergiant, whose colour is very obvious in binoculars.
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Because of the very obvious advantages of growing in containers the practice, in far too many hands, has become a circus.
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This becomes very obvious once you put the process into practice.
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His interest in education was very obvious and his attendance at Keele was evidence of this.
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With some speakers the difference is not very obvious .
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She was alarmed to hear a very obvious lack of conviction in her voice, though.
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Maxim's assumption came as a relief- and a very obvious fact.
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In the spring, this need of young animals for the company of those of the same age is very obvious .
■ NOUN
advantage
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Where it's good it's very good indeed and all-wheel drive at this price as an obvious advantage .
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Despite the obvious advantages of a unified perspective for collective political action, the differences among women disallow such a perspective.
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This has obvious advantages for local users.
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There are obvious advantages to the camera approach.
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Their true jaws are of obvious advantage for grasping prey.
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These large companies have obvious advantages in the service provider business because of their well-known brand names.
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For these boats a sail which allows them to compete more evenly under handicap rules has obvious advantages .
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The most obvious advantage of this system was that it made obsolete the fifty-five spheres of Aristotle.
answer
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The obvious answer is to draw it back to the side away from the corner, but this can create an unbalanced appearance.
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Video teleconferencing seemed the obvious answer to span the communications gap.
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Cui bono? has a too obvious answer .
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If counterintelligence becomes the overriding mission, the obvious answer is the solution first offered by Sen.
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To all these and other equally weighty questions, I had no obvious answers yet.
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The obvious answer , of course, is that it is just another example of the Government's incompetence.
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For the Terrells a good many of the obvious answers are irrelevant.
candidate
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An obvious candidate is a visual recognition system.
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The obvious candidate as vehicle would have been gesture.
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Charity was an obvious candidate , Charles considered, and she was probably being watched.
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And a fund wishing to commit money to the international media industry has in Reed/Elsevier an obvious candidate for such an investment.
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Genes must surely be made of something that is itself various-and the most obvious candidate was protein.
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Heavily leaded bronzes are obvious candidates for analysis.
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An obvious candidate is some stylised representation of a finite-state machine.
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Smaller and less costly items such as pens, beauty products and food are much more obvious candidates for a more general distribution.
choice
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Most flooring can be laid anywhere in the house but there are some obvious choices for certain rooms.
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No problem, Mr Hinds had said, the obvious choice was Renie LaChance.
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Given the nature of the project, Pontus Hulten was an obvious choice to direct the artistic activities of the new Kunsthalle.
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That they have everybody back, another year bigger, stronger and smarter, makes them the obvious choice .
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Most frequently the group had several alternative plants to consider for closure rather than an obvious choice .
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Says Ted: My father was the obvious choice .
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Joseph Fiennes has never been one for obvious choices .
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Best apres ski: The obvious choice is Rainbow Lodge.
example
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An obvious example is the relationship of a part to a whole.
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An obvious example was reported recently in Tennessee.
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Advertising material is an obvious example .
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A single obvious example should suffice to make the point.
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A direct and obvious example is that many marine animals are dispersed around the globe by ocean currents.
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Constitutional monarchies are obvious examples of political systems with a dual executive.
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An obvious example would be a painting called Bald Eagle, made in 1955, one year before the car accident.
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One obvious example is the almost universal ban against committing adultery with another man s wife.
fact
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The most obvious fact is that real problems are rare.
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Better for Seifert would be to concentrate on the more obvious facts .
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But the most obvious fact about the social world is that what happens in it has meaning for the inhabitants.
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Unspoken was the obvious fact that people already knew whether they had a family member on board.
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This should not obscure the obvious fact that they are also profit-making concerns, too.
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Maxim's assumption came as a relief- and a very obvious fact .
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The two broken marriages and then the obvious fact that he didn't think much of her.
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The obvious fact that people of comfortable circumstance live peacefully together and those afflicted by poverty do not goes largely unnoticed.
problem
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But despite the obvious problems it's hoped the unit will be operational within two weeks.
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There are obvious problems for the stability of the state if these different groups are in conflict with each other.
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Anxiety in the horse has many other unfortunate side effects besides the obvious problems of handling and riding such horses.
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Out on crowded Third Avenue, the people with obvious problems look a bit different to me now.
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A second obvious problem is the striking blank where normally we would expect to find discussion of content.
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The most obvious problem , the coup de grace, was a quite unexpected side-effect.
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Judicial disagreement of this kind presents an immediate and obvious problem for conventionalism.
question
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An obvious question is the nature of the morphogen.
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The obvious question is: Why?
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Leaving aside antislavery as a convenience for particular interests, an obvious question occurs.
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The obvious question to ask would be: why do mice give birth to mice and elephants to elephants?
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The next obvious question concerns the reasonableness of such a range of conditions.
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That raises obvious questions about the priorities of federal drug enforcement agents and prosecutors.
reason
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Even if he did politely turn down Branson's parting offer of a seat on Virgin's inaugural flight - for obvious reasons .
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And certainly not any specific church, club, movement, party or Klan, for obvious reasons .
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Unfortunately it is not easy - for obvious reasons - to study modern submarine lava flows in their proper environment.
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The ratio is 60 percent womens bathrooms to mens in the new arena for, ahem, obvious reasons .
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For obvious reasons , laser beams or submerged fluorescent wires can not be used to mark the start line.
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For obvious reasons it is never fully expressible in words.
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There are two obvious reasons why it may be hard to set up this market.
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For many and obvious reasons , it was impossible to take much time away from her work and home.
sign
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There are now obvious signs that we are here to stay.
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Only one showed no obvious signs of violence.
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After a quick look round to make sure that weed left no obvious signs of our own visit, we left.
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They maybe the only obvious signs of social status.
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Check fish for obvious signs of bacterial disease before you buy them.
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The most obvious sign was a blitz called by defensive coordinator Fred Whittingham with just over two minutes left in the game.
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In the pages that follow I will characterize some of the more obvious signs of a badly organized and motivated operation.
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The only obvious sign of wear and tear is a groaning gearbox, while the engine smokes a little on start-up.
target
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New auditors are for ever charging at birth as an obvious target .
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Far from being impartial, he had an obvious target .
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Clearly the review might shift this balance making pensions the obvious target .
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My cousin was simply the easiest and most obvious target .
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Child benefit may be another obvious target for the departmental review.
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It has been an obvious target for economy-minded governments.
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They were an obvious target for hungry birds and were easily picked off.
thing
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As well as the more obvious things like reducing energy costs and recycling where possible, the community is benefiting from the programme.
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This may seem a startlingly obvious thing to say.
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We knew we wanted to do obvious things like health.
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The obvious thing was to start backtracking.
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The obvious thing was the gold watch, wrapped up at the bottom in a bit of cloth.
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To drop it as soon as it was ready seemed natural, the obvious thing to do.
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It's the most obvious thing to do.
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For the most obvious thing about them is that they have led to continuous bodily improvement.
way
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Perhaps the most obvious way to build strength is by training with weights.
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One obvious way of conceptualizing generality is in terms of knowledge.
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In a society that values freedom above all, the obvious way to celebrate a centenary is just to keep driving.
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The most obvious way to get through to them was via the media.
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One obvious way to minimize this problem is to reduce the number of different data formats.
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Another obvious way of increasing plasticity is to mix a relatively fine plastic clay with a stiff clay.
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In nature, the obvious way is through genetic relatedness - kinship.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
immediately obvious/apparent
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As is immediately obvious, a psychotherapy based on this approach is quite different from one based on the older questions.
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It may be obvious that the postholes represent structures, but little else may be immediately apparent.
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On the other hand, no new direction was immediately apparent.
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Once a site is put back into production, it may not be immediately obvious that the archaeological sites have been destroyed.
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Over half a million people have watched the first two Tests and two things are immediately obvious.
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The distinction between primary and secondary sources will not always be immediately obvious to the pupil.
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The reason for this difficulty is immediately apparent.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"Why is she leaving?" "Well, it's obvious , isn't it?"
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an obvious mistake
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For obvious reasons, we've had to cancel tonight's performance.
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It's obvious that Paul is in love with Liz.
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It's obvious that something is wrong.
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It should be obvious to everyone that we need to make some changes.
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It was obvious from the start that my parents disliked Nancy.
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She tried to look grateful, but her disappointment was obvious .
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There is an obvious connection between the two murders.
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There was no obvious reason for their behavior.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But the instability of the political structures and other weaknesses were obvious in the struggles between the factions within the party.
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From the moment they joined the others outside the shop, it was obvious that the twins were sulking.
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The benefits of truth-telling are obvious .
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The solution is also obvious - please check envelopes are not too tightly packed, if in doubt use a bigger envelope!
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There are obvious problems for the stability of the state if these different groups are in conflict with each other.
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They expressed their surprise since they, like the doctors who treated them, associated obvious injury with obvious pain.