I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
$64,000 question, the
▪
The $64,000 question is whether or not the rocket will take off safely.
a basic question
▪
The interviewer will ask you some basic questions about your education and work experience.
a crucial question
▪
She seemed to be trying to avoid the crucial question.
a fundamental question
▪
To reach a solution several fundamental questions need to be answered.
a key issue/question/point
▪
The environment became a key issue during the election.
a matter/point/question of honour (= something you feel you must do because of your moral beliefs )
▪
To my mum, paying bills on time is a point of honour.
a personal question
▪
That’s a rather personal question.
a reasonable question
▪
Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question.
a test question
▪
Some of the test questions were really difficult.
address a problem/question/issue etc
▪
Our products address the needs of real users.
an essay question
▪
We practised essay questions from previous exam papers.
an exam question
▪
Read the exam questions carefully before writing your answers.
an examination question
▪
Read the examination questions carefully before writing your answers.
an interview question
▪
Some of the interview questions were quite difficult to answer.
an obvious question
▪
The obvious question is: why?
an open question
▪
The matter remains an open question .
answered...question
▪
He still hadn’t answered my question .
awkward questions
▪
I hoped he would stop asking awkward questions .
deal with an issue/matter/question
▪
New laws were introduced to deal with the issue.
detained...for questioning
▪
Two suspects have been detained by the police for questioning .
discuss the question/subject
▪
We’d never discussed the question of having children.
dodge an issue/question
▪
Senator O'Brian skilfully dodged the crucial question.
ducked...question
▪
Glazer ducked a question about his involvement in the bank scandal.
embarrassing questions
▪
She asked a lot of embarrassing questions .
ethical issues/questions/problems
▪
The use of animals in scientific tests raises difficult ethical questions.
evaded...question
▪
The minister evaded the question .
fielded questions
▪
The Minister fielded questions on the Middle East.
hypothetical situation/example/question
▪
Brennan brought up a hypothetical case to make his point.
pertinent questions
▪
He asked me a lot of very pertinent questions .
put a question (to sb)
▪
I will be putting that very question to her.
question a witness
▪
They were not permitted to question government witnesses.
question mark
▪
A big question mark hangs over the company’s future.
question master
question tag
question the merits of sth (= not be sure if something is a good idea )
▪
People began to question the merits of nuclear energy.
question/doubt the wisdom of (doing) sth
▪
Local people are questioning the wisdom of spending so much money on a new road.
question/interrogate/interview a suspect
▪
Police confirmed that six suspects are being questioned.
questions remain unanswered
▪
Many other questions remain unanswered .
question/suspect sb’s motive (= think that someone might have selfish or dishonest reasons for doing something )
▪
They began to question the motives of the people who held positions of power.
raised...question
▪
Betty raised the important question of who will be in charge.
reopen a case/question/debate etc
▪
attempts to reopen the issue of the power station’s future
rephrase...question
▪
OK. Let me rephrase the question .
resolve an issue/matter/question
▪
Has the issue been resolved yet?
sarcastic remark/comment/question
▪
He can’t help making sarcastic comments.
searching questions/investigation/examination etc
▪
Interviewees need to be ready for some searching questions.
settle a question/matter
▪
It is the area of pricing which may settle the question of which to buy.
solve a question
▪
Did they really think the Jerusalem question would be solved in a week?
stupid idea/question
▪
Whose stupid idea was this?
tackle a problem/issue/question
▪
The government has failed to tackle the problem of youth crime.
tag question
taken in for questioning
▪
All five teenagers were arrested and taken in for questioning .
the police question/interview sb
▪
Police are questioning two men about the deaths.
the question of how
▪
This still leaves the question of how local services should be funded.
tough questions
▪
The reporters were asking a lot of tough questions .
undergo questioning/interrogation (= answer questions from the police )
▪
Mrs White underwent 20 hours of questioning, and admitted nothing.
venture an opinion/question/word etc
▪
If we had more information, it would be easier to venture a firm opinion.
▪
Roy ventured a tentative smile.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
awkward
▪
Don't be afraid to ask awkward questions .
▪
Missile defence has a political momentum that makes a supposedly awkward question such as whether it really works pale almost into irrelevance.
▪
Overfamiliarity at this stage also makes asking awkward questions more difficult.
▪
The extra thirty days for a successful crossing raised some awkward questions .
▪
But the Basle convention fails to offer a watertight answer to the awkward question: which waste is hazardous?
▪
To have assumed otherwise would have been to raise a number of awkward questions .
▪
He's asking awkward questions , he's probably a spy.
▪
Start thinking Both sides spare themselves awkward questions that badly need to be answered.
big
▪
Ready for action A big question mark hangs over the wisdom of visiting any Arab state at present, writes Mike Harper.
▪
Still, the movie fails to answer the big pirate question: Why are fictional pirates always burying their treasure?
▪
The big question isn't so much how it happened as why?
▪
The big question is just how is it all going to work.
▪
The big question is: Will Dessie wear cycle shorts?
▪
Well, law seemed the broadest umbrella for looking at those big questions .
▪
Many of these leave a very big question mark as to their eternal significance.
▪
The big question is whether other cable companies will follow pioneers such as Comcast.
difficult
▪
The second is the more difficult question .
▪
I prefaced it by saying that these were difficult questions which he was at liberty not to answer.
▪
Redundancies arising from a reduction in work present more difficult questions .
▪
Practice interviewing with a friend who will ask you difficult questions .
▪
This is a difficult question but in practice few spreadsheets need more than 1 or 2 MBytes of expanded memory.
▪
Solicitors therefore take counsel's opinion on difficult or technical questions of law or procedure.
▪
The more difficult question is how long he can continue as a one-man movement.
▪
He then turned to the difficult question as to whether land is capable of passing by donatio mortis causa.
important
▪
Finally, there is the important question of inflation.
▪
This leaves one important question: How does the Republican nominee get more of the black and minority vote?
▪
In addition, there are important questions of interpretation to consider.
▪
It is an important question , because it accounts for the detachment with which disasters were viewed at Salomon.
▪
But this is where important questions are raised concerning the police in society.
▪
Sometimes we can only raise important questions , not answer them.
▪
This raises an important question: with what type of poem, what genre, are we faced here?
▪
The matter of where the real values lie seems to me to be the final important question of this book.
key
▪
Fluoride can be harmful; the key question is, at what concentrations does it become toxic in the body?
▪
The key question is, of course, how much inequality can government prevent before the too-much limit is reached.
▪
The key question is how flexibility will be applied in sensitive areas such as foreign policy.
▪
The key question has become how information is organized, who has access to it, and why.
▪
Constantly ask yourself what key questions reading this book is going to help to answer.
▪
It will ensure that these key questions are relevant.
▪
A key question concerns the types of social contact that may be associated with a high risk of transmission of P cepacia.
▪
A key question is whether firms should be able to decide which regulatory body to join.
obvious
▪
An obvious question is the nature of the morphogen.
▪
The obvious question is how long the present authoritative regime will be able to resist the pressures.
▪
The obvious question is: Why?
▪
The obvious question to ask would be: why do mice give birth to mice and elephants to elephants?
▪
Nurture Researchers probing the environmental side of the alcoholism coin begin with the obvious question: Why do people drink?
▪
The next obvious question concerns the reasonableness of such a range of conditions.
▪
Which raises an obvious question: Why do humans have such a powerful urge to consume this poison?
unanswered
▪
All this, while the field is festooned with unanswered question marks!
▪
The space between them was filling up with unasked and unanswered questions .
▪
Future chroniclers may, indeed, describe the 1996 confrontation as the campaign of unanswered questions .
▪
These unanswered questions serve to highlight the practicalities which prescriptions of this kind ignore.
▪
Please do not hesitate to make contact with me in the event that this letter leaves unanswered any questions you might have.
▪
But it left some unanswered questions .
■ NOUN
mark
▪
Then there are notes and figures relating to the library with a lot of question marks .
▪
Light brown jacket, question mark shirt, without a hat.
▪
They grew up in the Depression, when the certainty of a meal was a question mark .
▪
One of the keys dispensed with was the question mark .
▪
Most people stick with basic punctuation marks: commas, periods, and question marks when appropriate.
▪
All the mirrors grew convex, she fingered the globe in its pregnant question mark .
■ VERB
address
▪
However, such historical studies as do address this question indicate that all members do not benefit equally.
▪
It addresses such questions as: Can a teacher who ridicules students be found guilty of slander?
▪
This symposium will address the question of effects of chemical substances on reproductive systems to both females and males.
▪
And because sperm now can be extracted after death, doctors must address the ethical questions raised by the lack of permission.
▪
The majority of the sample did address the question about time off work.
▪
Developers of organizational electronic commerce applications must address these questions if they are to be successful.
▪
That is, he addresses the question of the state.
▪
In coming toward the end of our book, we must address the question that is the title of this chapter.
answer
▪
Miss Menzies couldn't be very helpful about the Datsun, though she answered all his questions very readily.
▪
Go to the previews that have the items on display and talk to the specialists who are on hand to answer questions .
▪
In any case she didn't answer my question .
▪
All of a sudden his cooperation ceased, and he refused to answer any further questions .
▪
Shortly after, however, he was seen out on the campaign trail, but refused to answer any questions .
▪
But nobody could answer the questions .
▪
Civil servants are also instructed not to answer questions about their own part in the conduct of business.
▪
Two of those people were then able to bring their score up to nineteen and one managed to answer all twenty questions .
ask
▪
Why waste everyone's time asking questions which need not be asked when the information is already there?
▪
They asked my mom questions , and then they gave me a chance to say something after all the stuff was done.
▪
Endill would ask Mr Litmus question after question and he was the only teacher who did not mind answering.
▪
As we finish, the woman asks an-other question .
▪
Don't ask questions or ask closed questions.
▪
Even if you win, you lose. 9. Ask questions .
▪
Let the hon. Gentleman ask his question - but briefly please.
▪
Bob asks the questions then explains how the youngsters maintain his enthusiasm.
beg
▪
Plenty of helices are not so stick-like, and of course the argument begs the question of how, rather than why.
▪
But that begs the real question: Who is Speedo Man?
▪
For they beg the questions they ask by simply assuming the truth of individualism.
▪
To say that sexuality exists in the brain simply begs the question .
▪
But Maria's presence actually begs a question since it's the sole moment when a startling presence swoops out of the mix.
▪
It begs the question of what pictures will be sacrificed in order to track Sanders.
▪
But, it also begs some questions .
▪
It is begging the question just to ask it.
pose
▪
None the less, he had clearly purported to pose the question of whether a caution was required, but had not answered it.
▪
He survived the surgery, and I cautiously began to pose questions .
▪
The segregation of school pupils who have disabilities or learning difficulties poses this question immediately.
▪
Simply put, eVote lets people pose questions and conduct votes using e-mail.
▪
Yet nostalgia movies pose a curious question of cinema sociology: what precisely will their posterity be?
▪
Fortunately, some scientists saw them as posing tractable scientific questions and offering new insights.
▪
Even to pose such questions reminds us that there was a large element of chance in the emergence of Mrs Thatcher.
▪
The month before, they had an opportunity to pose some questions to a pediatrician.
put
▪
I think it unlikely that there is any further evidence which would put the question beyond doubt.
▪
He let him approach and drink of the black blood, then put his question to him.
▪
The right hon. Member has a right to put his question .
▪
It was accounted great discourtesy to put any question to a guest before his wants had been satisfied.
▪
There was one man who soon put that out of the question .
▪
And I saw another man with a wheel on his head and put a question to him.
▪
I want to put a specific question to the Minister.
▪
The House is considering whether to put to voters the question of whether slots should be legal.
raise
▪
This raises the question as to whether the genuineness of the Church should be judged by its effectiveness in achieving growth.
▪
The succession also raises immediate questions about the qualifications of Westin, who has no news background.
▪
In effect this raises the question , to whom is the duty of fairness owed?
▪
I raised the question of my own existence.
▪
Shawcross raises these questions within the context of disaster relief but they have a broader setting.
▪
The kind of dependence that marriage creates between adult spouses raises substantive questions of status and power.
▪
This raises the question of whether it is necessary to represent objects at the single cell level.
▪
This raises the question , did the plumes cause the Pangaean crust to fracture?
resolve
▪
Although I can not give a date, we intend to proceed just as soon as we can resolve the question of the contract.
▪
They subsequently found it difficult to talk about organization structure without first resolving questions of strategy.
▪
There have been book-length studies devoted to trying to resolve the question of Doctor Faustus's text.
▪
Gorbachev wrote that only he and Reagan, talking together, could resolve the questions he raised.
▪
Consider the origin of both of these sources, and comment on their value in resolving this question . 13.
▪
Would starting my own business help me resolve these questions ? 5.
▪
There is no obvious way of resolving the question of crowd composition.
▪
Flores, to resolve the question .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(that's a) good idea/point/question
a loaded question
a moot point/question
▪
It's a moot point whether this is censorship.
▪
It is a moot point whether hierarchies exist outside our own thought processes.
▪
Quite how long Lord Young was proposing to delay publication is a moot point.
▪
This, of course, is a moot point.
▪
When you go to a place called Texas Bone, deciding what to order becomes a moot point.
▪
Whether the law should be this is a moot point.
▪
Whether they have appeared as part of the C. and A.G.'s audit is a moot point.
▪
Whether this input has made a significant impact on the pattern of activity is a moot point.
a pointed question/look/remark
▪
As he left the office he locked it behind him, with a pointed look at Bob.
a thorny question/problem/issue etc
▪
In addition, sending encrypted data over international boundaries represents a thorny issue: it is still illegal in some countries.
▪
Melding the top managements also would be a thorny issue.
▪
None of these struck me as particularly penetrating answers to a thorny problem.
a trick question
be open to question/doubt
▪
The authenticity of the relics is open to doubt.
▪
Their motives are open to question.
▪
But whether Republicans want to cooperate is open to question.
▪
Even if, as is open to question, screen violence really does invite emulation, that is the wrong approach.
▪
In particular, the significance of the small number who say their work has been deskilled is open to question.
▪
It also is open to question how well equipped courts are to make this kind of determination-about the workings of economic markets.
▪
The entire business of basing regulations on animal tests is open to question.
▪
The President acceded to the Chancellor's request for two reasons, both of which were open to question.
▪
Whether the yeast could ever be as abundant as this is open to question.
▪
Whether this kind of Labour Party is capable of winning a general election is open to doubt.
beg the question
▪
All this begs the question about the reliability of Mr Dole's gut.
▪
It begs the question of what pictures will be sacrificed in order to track Sanders.
▪
It is begging the question just to ask it.
▪
Plenty of helices are not so stick-like, and of course the argument begs the question of how, rather than why.
▪
Such measures, of course, beg the question in many ways.
▪
To say that seems to me really to beg the question.
▪
To say that sexuality exists in the brain simply begs the question.
▪
Which rather begs the question-shouldn't there be a governing body that regulates such questionable decisions?
broach the subject/question/matter etc
▪
But what was still troubling her was the fact that she had still not broached the subject of Janice.
▪
He broached the matter carefully while Marshall put a match to some logs in the grate.
▪
I never broached the subject with him again.
▪
It was half a year, he thought, since she had last broached the subject of his bachelor status.
▪
It was nine o'clock and they had been driven in by the mosquitoes before he broached the subject of the night before.
▪
Now, popular magazines regularly broach the subject.
▪
Popular magazines now broach the subject of mental illness, while the government is encouraging research into mental health.
▪
When, two months later, Father van Exem broached the subject, the Archbishop was actually quite upset about the idea.
burning issue/question
▪
Another burning issue is unfair dismissal.
▪
But the burning question is: How many times a day do kids wander in looking to buy rolling papers?
▪
It can also lead to the efficacy of our advice becoming the burning issue of discussion.
▪
Quality, of design and typography rather than editorial matter, is a burning issue as far as desktop publishing is concerned.
▪
The burning question is - how soon?
▪
The star trek is over for today, but the burning questions are still unanswered.
▪
Transmission has always been the burning issue for scientists interested in studying this epidemic.
call (sth) into question
▪
And while the injunctions are subject to unwitting acceptance, it is impossible to call them into question.
▪
Nothing that has happened since has called that judgment into question.
fire questions at sb
▪
The Professor had finished, and Ace and Daak were firing questions at her.
▪
The young man took the seat behind the cold metal desk and began to fire questions at me.
it's (only/just) a matter/question of time
▪
But they believe it's only a matter of time before the disease crosses the county boundary.
▪
If he hasn't already killed somebody, then it's only a matter of time .
▪
They think it's only a matter of time before he breaks.
leading question
▪
All right, I won't ask leading questions.
▪
For example, a leading question may take the respondent outside the bounds of the context of everyday life.
▪
In answer to a leading question about the temperature Of the room, he reflected that it had been cold and draughty.
▪
It makes me worry, all those leading questions with hidden assumptions that detectives like to ask suspects.
▪
Never did she ask leading questions or provide suggestions.
▪
To arrive there the counsellor has to stop talking, and in order to stop talking, answerable and leading questions are required.
pepper sb with questions
▪
At every stop, reporters peppered her with questions.
▪
As the doctor tends the grandfather, the young man peppers him with questions.
▪
Later, students peppered King with questions.
▪
The justices peppered the attorneys with questions.
ply sb with questions
▪
She had been there before and was very tolerant of the young man plying her with questions.
▪
Ungerer spent a long time plying them with questions.
pop the question
▪
Jane was delighted when Matt eventually popped the question.
▪
When are you going to pop the question?
▪
Boy goes back on radio and pops the question.
▪
He put a ladder up to her office window to pop the question as she sat at her desk.
▪
Meanwhile, his girlfriend of 17 years, Jenette, was delighted when Brian popped the question.
pose a question
▪
The magazine posed a list of questions to each of the candidates.
▪
He survived the surgery, and I cautiously began to pose questions.
▪
In their minds, buying a gown poses questions more complicated than chiffon or lace.
▪
It is open to the House to ask for reports, and it can pose questions at any time.
▪
Olajuwon stopped by to visit and pose a question: Could Pond help him get to college in the United States?
▪
Simply put, eVote lets people pose questions and conduct votes using e-mail.
▪
That poses a question about their very nature.
▪
Yet these two enemies are also enemies of each other, which poses a question.
pursue the matter/argument/question etc
▪
Anxious to avoid further difficulty, Harriet did not pursue the matter.
▪
I regret that they were unable to pursue the matter any further.
▪
If you feel upset by an apparent unfairness, pursue the matter through the grievance procedure.
▪
It is capable of extension, but we shall not pursue the matter here.
▪
She wouldn't put it past him but in the brilliant afternoon heat she wasn't inclined to pursue the matter.
▪
There was no need to pursue the matter any further prior to arrest.
rhetorical question
▪
A rhetorical question, but asked with deep feeling.
▪
But rhetorical questions can be over-used, especially where answers to the questions do not follow immediately.
▪
Consider these two rhetorical questions, from an essay on Othello: Does this tell us about Shakespeare?
▪
His critics even smile in anticipation of a rhetorical question meeting with a devastating reply.
▪
That is not a rhetorical question.
▪
The rhetorical question rightly goes unanswered, and the following paragraph consigns the missio unmourned to the shades.
▪
The two extremes can be expressed in the form of two rhetorical questions.
▪
These and other rhetorical questions are asked in a spirit of humility with no stones clutched, hidden in the hand.
shoot questions at sb
▪
The prosecutor shot a series of rapid questions at Hendrickson.
sidestep a problem/issue/question
▪
But she sidesteps a question about her priorities in a time of limited funding.
stock excuse/question/remark etc
table a proposal/question/motion etc
▪
Baldwin tabled proposals which involved payments of £34 million a year.
▪
Even our own wets will summon up the courage to table a question or two.
▪
He has tabled a question on the issue for tomorrow's council meeting.
▪
If the hon. Gentleman wants to table a question or write to me, I shall be glad to enlarge upon that.
▪
The move came after a vote by regents indefinitely tabling a motion to rescind their July 20 vote revising admissions policies.
▪
The Umpires' Association had planned to table a motion giving an official vote of support for Lamb.
the larger issues/question/problem/picture
▪
But the larger picture is systematically distorted by the military and political calculations concerning the strategic uses of information and disinformation.
▪
Here we are concerned with the larger problem of the relationship between men as a class and other animals as a class.
▪
It has come to have a bearing on the larger questions of civilized survival.
▪
Mission-driven budgets relieve legislators of micromanagement decisions, freeing them to focus on the larger problems they were elected to solve.
▪
She was blind to the larger picture that involves building and maintaining good relationships with both fellow-workers and superiors.
▪
That ignorance is at the root of geophysicists' struggle with the larger problem of how the whole earth works.
▪
Too much, and the larger picture might become apparent.
▪
You failed to connect the various elements together or to move through the detail to the larger issues of the painting.
there is a question mark over sth/a question mark hangs over sth
throw a question/remark etc (at sb)
▪
One day, as she was scolding me, I suddenly threw a question at her.
▪
Sally arranged herself on his other side and they walked him away, throwing questions at him.
▪
These disparities throw a question mark over the accuracy of social costs data.
touchy subject/question etc
▪
He also knew the answers to some touchy questions.
▪
Morris's lasting influence is a touchy subject at the White House.
▪
You know money is a touchy subject with me.
vexed question/issue/problem etc
▪
A paradigm example of this is the vexed question of spatial visualisation.
▪
And there is another vexed question.
▪
I shall not turn to the vexed question of the national minimum wage.
▪
Potentially an even bigger bombshell is about to burst on the vexed question of pension rights.
▪
The vexed question has always been: Who should write the programs which control these machines?
▪
Then there is the vexed issue of paying for tax cuts.
▪
Until recently what was on the child's school record and whether parent or child could see it was a vexed question.
▪
Was the vexed question of extradition discussed at the Council?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Does anyone have any further questions?
▪
Eventually his questioners realized he was not the man they wanted and let him go.
▪
How can we best help less developed countries? That's the really important question .
▪
I hate it when strangers ask me questions about my private life.
▪
In the 1980s the question of whether photography was an art went to court.
▪
Jim Lehrer was the only questioner of the candidates in the debate.
▪
Mr Hayes is being kept at Newham police station for questioning.
▪
Several questions had still not been resolved.
▪
That's a very difficult question to answer.
▪
The lawyer's questioning of the witness did not go on as long as expected.
▪
The real question here is how can we integrate asylum seekers into communities.
▪
There were several questions Melanie wanted to ask the interviewer.
▪
These operations can save lives, but they raise difficult questions about animal rights.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Are you getting paid to ask questions or unload trucks?
▪
Beyond the question of weight loss, olestra raises some messy health issues.
▪
Gorbachev wrote that only he and Reagan, talking together, could resolve the questions he raised.
▪
It is all a question of time.
▪
Last fall, questions were raised about the purchase of a $ 9. 2 million worth of fencing.
▪
One more question you might ask yourself is: Is it Worth the Fight?
▪
Recent literature on public opinion has managed to shed fascinating new light on that age-old question .
▪
She answered the questions in her interrogation with perfect candour, but her answers had the effect of crystallising her basic thinking.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
why
▪
This leads Ponyboy to question why he and his friends' attack people.
▪
By election day, many observers will question why Bill Clinton and Bob Dole were nominated and why they are running.
▪
From these you can begin questioning why you are spending so much time on certain activities and less on others.
▪
She never questioned why she was working so hard.
▪
At school and university people are encouraged to question why things must be done, rather than accept orders passively.
▪
Some days it makes me question why I went to jail.
▪
The report will question why medical staff working with him did not blow the whistle on his activities.
■ NOUN
assumption
▪
One must also question the assumption that single-discipline degrees are themselves immaculately unified.
▪
Because we are still questioning the assumptions , there are no theories.
▪
And she knew she was annoying them whenever she questioned their assumptions .
▪
Odilon Redon questioned the universal assumption that the photographic image was a transmitter of truth.
▪
Reworking her rich and cultural history to question Western attitudes and assumptions .
▪
The Regional Council also questioned the assumptions on costs in the Government's paper.
▪
There is therefore a need to question this assumption that aggression is a given element which somehow has to be accounted for.
▪
There are at least two reasons to question the assumptions underlying such notions.
decision
▪
He expected her to leave the company without questioning his decision , but he was wrong.
▪
Indeed, many of their old peers questioned their decision to become managers.
▪
He was questioned about the decision not to build a lift at Watford but instead to renew the narrow locks.
▪
The estimated 75,000 people who remain are questioning their decision to stay.
▪
This means primary care needs to continue to develop its own capacity to question the decisions that are being taken.
▪
The journey is going to be hard enough without you questioning every decision I make.
▪
This allows you to question decisions and have your case heard by another senior manager.
▪
He has to question every decision .
motive
▪
Lawyers and supporters of the parents in Orkney questioned both the motives and the methods of this once trusted organisation.
▪
Others question corporate motives and wonder how much we want businesses involved in the schools.
▪
Your Miss MacQuillan says she questions my motives and emphatically will not encourage me to identify her father's killer.
▪
What has happened in the last decade to make anyone question his motives ?
▪
He predicted that devolution would be divisive and questioned the very motives behind the policy.
police
▪
The police questioned policy-wheel operators, gamblers, and hoodlums of all kinds.
▪
He reportedly told police who questioned him after the school attack that he had taken an overdose of tranquilizers.
▪
I only know this, because a police inspector questioned me about it in Venice just a few weeks ago.
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Last night police were still questioning the other three men and one woman who were arrested at the site.
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Three suspects were taken into custody and police were questioning them Friday morning.
validity
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However, no one today would question the validity of these groups.
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In this moment of excitement, there is no time to question the validity of these presences.
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Yet, as education began to spread, women all over questioned its usefulness and validity .
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They have taught their employees never to question its validity .
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This doctrine means that a person can not question the validity of a piece of legislation through the courts.
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I question the usefulness and validity of this explanation.
value
▪
They are not questioning the potential value of, in this context, high-quality environmental information perse.
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No one questions the value or the wisdom of these arrangements.
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The people of the world's second-largest economy are questioning the values and ramifications of overheated capitalism.
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If competition saves money only by skimping on wages or benefits, for instance, governments should question its value .
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Some might even question the value of discussing his work at all.
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As recently as 1991 at least one authority still questioned the value of routine measurement of blood pressure under 35.
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Am I alone, though, in questioning the value of the poppers on the bellows side pockets?
wisdom
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The reader might question the wisdom of leaving oil prices to be determined by purely market forces.
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At least one money manager who focuses on emerging markets questions the wisdom of that approach.
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Some teachers have questioned the wisdom of supplying tape machines at all for the computer.
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In fact, it terrified him, and it made him question the wisdom of getting involved with Gabby.
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They question conventional wisdom , they ask awkward questions, they do not speak the jargon.
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And he even questioned the wisdom of having such a thing as a World Cup.
■ VERB
detain
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Any Negro seen on the streets was detained and questioned .
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The captain was detained for questioning .
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The Trabant driver was being detained and questioned , as were a dozen onlookers.
lead
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This leads Ponyboy to question why he and his friends' attack people.
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A study of the tasks that need doing may lead you to question whether there is a vacancy.
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This leads me to question the completely illusory quality of such identifications.
▪
The shock of seeing these living fossils of Xinjiang first led him to question their authenticity.
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Free inquiry within the liberation movements, then, led to a deep questioning of problematic assumptions in the modern political worldview.
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Marcia Pointon's fascinating essay on the contemporary portrait leads us to question the central relationship between artist, sitter and spectator.
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Two recent incidents have led me to question my responses in a job that I continue to enjoy and do well.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(that's a) good idea/point/question
a loaded question
a moot point/question
▪
It's a moot point whether this is censorship.
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It is a moot point whether hierarchies exist outside our own thought processes.
▪
Quite how long Lord Young was proposing to delay publication is a moot point.
▪
This, of course, is a moot point.
▪
When you go to a place called Texas Bone, deciding what to order becomes a moot point.
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Whether the law should be this is a moot point.
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Whether they have appeared as part of the C. and A.G.'s audit is a moot point.
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Whether this input has made a significant impact on the pattern of activity is a moot point.
a pointed question/look/remark
▪
As he left the office he locked it behind him, with a pointed look at Bob.
a thorny question/problem/issue etc
▪
In addition, sending encrypted data over international boundaries represents a thorny issue: it is still illegal in some countries.
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Melding the top managements also would be a thorny issue.
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None of these struck me as particularly penetrating answers to a thorny problem.
a trick question
be open to question/doubt
▪
The authenticity of the relics is open to doubt.
▪
Their motives are open to question.
▪
But whether Republicans want to cooperate is open to question.
▪
Even if, as is open to question, screen violence really does invite emulation, that is the wrong approach.
▪
In particular, the significance of the small number who say their work has been deskilled is open to question.
▪
It also is open to question how well equipped courts are to make this kind of determination-about the workings of economic markets.
▪
The entire business of basing regulations on animal tests is open to question.
▪
The President acceded to the Chancellor's request for two reasons, both of which were open to question.
▪
Whether the yeast could ever be as abundant as this is open to question.
▪
Whether this kind of Labour Party is capable of winning a general election is open to doubt.
burning issue/question
▪
Another burning issue is unfair dismissal.
▪
But the burning question is: How many times a day do kids wander in looking to buy rolling papers?
▪
It can also lead to the efficacy of our advice becoming the burning issue of discussion.
▪
Quality, of design and typography rather than editorial matter, is a burning issue as far as desktop publishing is concerned.
▪
The burning question is - how soon?
▪
The star trek is over for today, but the burning questions are still unanswered.
▪
Transmission has always been the burning issue for scientists interested in studying this epidemic.
it's (only/just) a matter/question of time
▪
But they believe it's only a matter of time before the disease crosses the county boundary.
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If he hasn't already killed somebody, then it's only a matter of time .
▪
They think it's only a matter of time before he breaks.
leading question
▪
All right, I won't ask leading questions.
▪
For example, a leading question may take the respondent outside the bounds of the context of everyday life.
▪
In answer to a leading question about the temperature Of the room, he reflected that it had been cold and draughty.
▪
It makes me worry, all those leading questions with hidden assumptions that detectives like to ask suspects.
▪
Never did she ask leading questions or provide suggestions.
▪
To arrive there the counsellor has to stop talking, and in order to stop talking, answerable and leading questions are required.
rhetorical question
▪
A rhetorical question, but asked with deep feeling.
▪
But rhetorical questions can be over-used, especially where answers to the questions do not follow immediately.
▪
Consider these two rhetorical questions, from an essay on Othello: Does this tell us about Shakespeare?
▪
His critics even smile in anticipation of a rhetorical question meeting with a devastating reply.
▪
That is not a rhetorical question.
▪
The rhetorical question rightly goes unanswered, and the following paragraph consigns the missio unmourned to the shades.
▪
The two extremes can be expressed in the form of two rhetorical questions.
▪
These and other rhetorical questions are asked in a spirit of humility with no stones clutched, hidden in the hand.
stock excuse/question/remark etc
the larger issues/question/problem/picture
▪
But the larger picture is systematically distorted by the military and political calculations concerning the strategic uses of information and disinformation.
▪
Here we are concerned with the larger problem of the relationship between men as a class and other animals as a class.
▪
It has come to have a bearing on the larger questions of civilized survival.
▪
Mission-driven budgets relieve legislators of micromanagement decisions, freeing them to focus on the larger problems they were elected to solve.
▪
She was blind to the larger picture that involves building and maintaining good relationships with both fellow-workers and superiors.
▪
That ignorance is at the root of geophysicists' struggle with the larger problem of how the whole earth works.
▪
Too much, and the larger picture might become apparent.
▪
You failed to connect the various elements together or to move through the detail to the larger issues of the painting.
there is a question mark over sth/a question mark hangs over sth
touchy subject/question etc
▪
He also knew the answers to some touchy questions.
▪
Morris's lasting influence is a touchy subject at the White House.
▪
You know money is a touchy subject with me.
vexed question/issue/problem etc
▪
A paradigm example of this is the vexed question of spatial visualisation.
▪
And there is another vexed question.
▪
I shall not turn to the vexed question of the national minimum wage.
▪
Potentially an even bigger bombshell is about to burst on the vexed question of pension rights.
▪
The vexed question has always been: Who should write the programs which control these machines?
▪
Then there is the vexed issue of paying for tax cuts.
▪
Until recently what was on the child's school record and whether parent or child could see it was a vexed question.
▪
Was the vexed question of extradition discussed at the Council?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
After questioning the suspect closely, investigators decided he was not a part of the drug operation.
▪
His leadership and integrity are being questioned.
▪
Liz was very well informed and questioned me about the political situation in Africa.
▪
Roughly 1000 people were questioned in the November poll.
▪
The interviewer questioned Miss Jarvis closely about her computer experience.
▪
The lawyer questioned me about how money was transmitted to Mexico.
▪
They questioned her for three hours before releasing her.
▪
We all wondered where Sylvia got the money, but no one dared question her.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But Justice Stanley Mosk questioned whether minors are, indeed, entitled to the same privacy rights as adults.
▪
From a historical standpoint, no one can question the Huskers' right to be called a great team.
▪
His sin, anticipating Keynes, was to question the value of limitless saving.
▪
I have had many letters asking for advice and questioning the use of bark and shavings because of coral spot fungus appearing.
▪
They were stopped and questioned by the police, who thought they were the real thing.
▪
What is happening to me? she questioned herself in dismay.