Descendants of the Sun

Housing prices are fluctuating between nine million seven hundred thousand four hundred eleven dollars and two hundred twelve million dollars. Their homebuyers and tenants often ask about bread and butter issues, such as hot water supply and air conditioning before purchasing or renting flats/Hot water supply and air conditioning are the sort of bread and butter issues homebuyers and tenants ask about... Even if you don't know his parents' background, you can tell from the clothes his dad/mum wears he's/she's a man/woman of means/they wear they're people of means who has/have the means of buying dozens of houses and making a killing with/on them/with which/on which they can make a killing. They have two massive houses in the city, not to mention their holiday home by the beach/the villa (= a large and luxurious house, usually in the countryside or near the sea, especially in Europe and often one that you use or rent while you're on holiday) on the island. While growing up poor/in a poor family, his dad learnt to live within his means/His dad was brought up (= care for a child, teaching him or her how to behave, etc.) to live within his means. If you can't afford to pay off (= finish paying money owed for something) your credit card bill at the end of the month, you're living beyond your means. He didn't travel much/may not have travelled much as a kid/young man because his family wasn't well-off/well-to-do but he's (certainly) made up for lost time (= doing something actively and with enthusiasm because you haven't had the opportunity to do it before or when you were younger) now. Some people ordered/placed an order on the touchscreen. Did you mistakenly tap my card twice (on the device)? I was just worried that you mistakenly/unintentionally tapped my card twice which would then be charged twice/, resulting in the price being deducted twice (from my credit card/account). There was a smudge of lipstick on the cup so they made another hot chocolate for her. She originally wanted to have a cappuccino/Americano/mocha/latte but the cafe/they had/were sold out of cappuccinos.../it had sold out. Finding the water ice cold, she asked for a warmer glass. That water is a bit cold/I find that water a bit cold. Could I have some warm water? As I wanted to get a mint hot chocolate and I had lots of coins in my bag that I wanted to use because they were heavy, I emptied my bag on the table in order to find them. She immediately said what're you doing? You've emptied your bag all over the table. I then said there's method to my madness (= strange logic). I've emptied my bag over the table because it's/emptying my bag over the table makes it easier and quicker to find all my coins. Then I'll re-pack my bag. There was a free chair beside me. Instead of placing my bag in it, I left it to other people who might need it/I let others who might need it take it. While drinking her hot chocolate in sips, she talked about her family holiday to Japan where they had/stayed in adjacent/adjoining rooms at a hotel that is adjacent to/handy for the train station which made their family holiday a breeze. On our family holiday to Japan, we asked for adjacent/adjoining rooms and our hotel is adjacent to/handy for the train station. Both our adjoining rooms and the location of the hotel made our family holiday a breeze. There was one time/Once while my cousin was on holiday in Japan, he could hear voices from the adjoining room in his hotel which sounded spooky, being sinister (= making you feel that something bad or evil might happen) or ghostly in a way that caused fear and unease/being strange and frightening/gave him the jimjams. There's a cemetery near his hotel which he didn't realize until he arrived at his hotel.

The cemetery was/became really spooky/menacing (= making you think someone is gling to do something bad/threatening)/had a really spooky atmosphere late at night/There's something sinister about the cemetery/The cemetery had a sinister appearance. On the first night, he overheard a (creepy) ghost story/someone on his phone tell a (creepy) ghost story outside his room. Out of interest, he walked to the door, looked through the peephole and eavesdropped on his phone call/conversation/ghost story but it got/became a bit/increasingly spooky/which created a rather (= rather) spooky atmosphere and he later regretted secretly listening to it because it made him hard to fall asleep. He heard the footsteps recede into the distance. Then he opened the curtains and looked out the window. He noticed a sinister-looking man/a man whose face/look was menacing sitting on/at the corner of the cemetery who looked up, noticed my cousin and moved menacingly towards him, giving/with a low menacing laugh which he could faintly hear in his hotel room which only had/with only/as it only had one huge fixed window. The man had dark, sinister eyes that made him nervous when he looked at him. Later, we moved over to the table by which we sat on the sofa/settee. She placed the Chopin nocturne book and the sonata book on the table next to each other. I asked what she was doing. It turned out there was method to her madness. She was taking a photo of them and sending it to her student who was going to buy it for her next lesson. Then she took a stack (= neatly piled)/pile of leaflets and envelopes out of her bag and placed/sorted/arranged them in/into two (neat) (separate) piles/and stacked them (up)/piled them (up) (neatly). It turned out the leaflets were an ad/advert/advertisement for her piano teaching/to promote/advertise her piano teaching and she was going to send them to other people's houses. She had five hundred envelopes to stuff with leaflets/had five hundred leaflets to stuff into envelopes. Then she sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor where she was stuffing leaflets into the envelopes, tearing the sheets of stamps along the perforations and sticking a stamp on each envelope. While doing so, I sank back into/leaned back against the cushions and took/had a sip/a few sips of the (mint/hazelnut) hot chocolate, us continuing to chat. She's recently had an interview for teaching piano at a music centre during which she was tested on piano music to measure her knowledge of piano music and her ability to play the piano. She said both the interview and the test were a breeze. You've really got to prepare for these things. You can't just wing it. She once hadn't prepared for an interview/She hadn't prepared for an interview (just) the once so she had to wing it and in the end, she didn't get/land the job. She turned up without thinking about the questions she might get asked so she was only able to come up with wishy-washy answers. Just as a manager can't take a wishy-washy approach to meetings/problems/dealing with problems, so you can't take a wishy-washy approach to interviews. You can't... just as/in the same way as/in the same way that a manager... If a wishy-washy manager is too scared to talk to their staff, problems will get worse. In the same way, if you write something wishy-washy in your assignments or exams, you won't get any marks. She suggested walking to the massage parlour for a massage. Then I said it's too far to walk, not to mention the fact that it'll probably be closed by now anyway. Instead, we went to an ice crram shop. She said I haven't been to that ice cream shop/place in ages/yonks. Come to think of it (= use this when you suddenly remember something), I don't think we've ever taken you there. We're going now.

When we headed back, she knocked on the door with a door knocker but no one answered the door so she put the key into the keyhole and turned the door handle/door knob to open the door after which she filed her nails and plucked her eyebrows. She originally invited her friends to her place for a drink but her friend had informed her about/of taking a rain check on (= cannot accept an invitation now, but would like to do so at a later time) that drink due to work so she was terribly/bitterly/deeply/sorely disappointed/absolutely gutted at/by/about it, slumping her shoulders. Mind if I take a rain check on that drink? I have to work late tonight. I would totally be up for that but I'm running some errands. I have to tie up some loose ends first as I've got stuff at home that I have to finish/I would love to do that but I'm running a few errands. I have to tie up a few loose ends because I have to go home and finish the tasks that I was doing. They were supposed to go to the cinema but things are up in the air/all bets are off (= unpredictable) now that Paul is feeling under the weather. They still haven't replied if he's got/landed the job, meaning that it's (all) up in the air, isn't it? Let's assume they can make it and make plans on that basis. The next day, we went to the harbour to watch a (big) firework/the (big) fireworks/a (New Year's Eve) firework display/a fireworks display/a display of fireworks. Thousands of people jammed into the square/by the harbour to watch the fireworks as a signal that the festival had started/, signifying that the festival had started. They let off the fireworks at midnight when the sky was alight with hundreds of fireworks, signifying... She finds her friend so adorable that she can't help pinching/but pinch her cheeks, shaking them and feeling their softness and fleshiness. While pinching her cheeks, she alternated between stretching them and moving them in circular motions/Whenever she pinches her friend's cheeks, it's an alternating pattern of pinching one side at a time and pinching both cheeks. While doing so, she feels the softness and fleshiness of them. She pinches quite a big chunk of (the skin on) her cheeks/a small part/a tiny bit of (the skin on) her cheeks. How can you justify always pinching her cheeks? She justified pinching her friend's cheeks by saying she's so adorable/Her pinching her friend's cheeks was justified when we saw how adorable her was/Her cuteness/Her friend being so adorable justified her pinching her cheeks. Her brother who didn't understand this gesture of love and affection/this popular expression of affection asked her to justify herself/her action to him. She pinched her friend's cheeks on the basis of her cuteness/basis that she's adorable.

2.
One day during my trip, I visited my friend's house which backs onto (= its back faces it) a river. She looked through the peephole and opened the door. She's tall, six foot one and big boned (= of a person or animal, of larger than average build without being fat). She has a good/great/lovely/beautiful/amazing figure. She does a lot of exercise and consumes healthy food to keep her figure. I've never seen her lose her figure/She does a lot of exercise and consumes foods that are good for her health and the figure so she's watching her figure. Most women have to watch their figure. She also loves dancing and has weekly dancing lessons. Dancing is fun and great for your figure. She doesn't (like to) talk shop at the weekends/over a coffee. She had several artificial Christmas trees. We can make a killing on these artificial Christmas trees if we are able to market them in time for the holidays. She's looking to book a holiday package so she's mulling over all the options/all the packages she's interested in. She needs a few days to mull things over before she makes up her mind. Unlike her younger brother who tends to dwell on the past/past memories instead of moving forward, She's a positive person who doesn't dwell on past mistakes and present miseries. She always says to her younger brother so you made a mistake. There's no need to dwell on it/I don't want to dwell on this subject for too long/I have no time to dwell on present miseries (= great unhappiness). If you hadn't made mistakes, you wouldn't have learnt how to make things right. Why the long face? (= why do you look sad?)/What's up/What's wrong? Apparently, her brother has recently broken up with her girlfriend so he's been wandering around/moping about, wandering around there not doing anything, looking and feeling unhappy/dilly-dallying (= waste time by/through being slow or aimless wandering or indecision) all week/acting like a lovesick teenager. He's become good for nothing (= a person who's lazy and not helpful or useful)/a good for nothing layabout (= a person who habitually does little or no work). What he needs is a bit of/a little retail therapy. Two weeks before their breakup, their relationship was already on shaky ground because she always snapped at him for no reason. As he's down in the dumps, of course I didn't rub it in but the previous day, his friend said I made a bit of a boo boo asking him about his girlfriend. Last month, he got out of bed (on) the wrong side and was grumpy all day. Apparently, it's because her friend got to him so she told him that he shouldn't let anyone get to him. He's got a job selling insurance but he isn't exactly making a killing. Her dad is fuddy-duddy (= old-fashioned and boring)/a fuddy-duddy/a stick in the mud and a creature of habit. Every time the whole family dines out, he has to go to the same restaurant. Her parents made a killing with/on the sales of their house in Tokyo. Her elder brother got hitched last year. When his wife bore him a son, he couldn't hide his delight/joy. She had borne four kids by the time she was thirty. When the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, it alarmed him/he was alarmed/He felt a growing sense of alarm when the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, realizing she might face the terrifying prospect of unemployment. As the company was on shaky ground, many workers would face the gloomy/grim/bleak prospect of losing their jobs. The threat of unemployment was looming at hand/on the horizon (= likely to happen or exist soon). He said if he likes his job, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles (= when something slightly unlucky has happened that couldn't have been prevented and so must be accepted).

One of his colleagues saw a job ad from their competitor and proceeded to have an interview immediately as he was worried someone else would take the job. It turned out he landed the job. Simultaneously, he burnt his boats/bridges with his old company/I burnt my boats/bridges when I took this management position. Even if the company didn't close down, it would be a huge pay cut to go back to my old job and my boss would be furious. The business was left high and dry following the sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees/The sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees left the business high and dry, including a manager/chairperson who was dragged kicking and screaming into resignation after/due to a sex scandal. He's (been forced to) stepped down/stepped aside (as manager/chairperson) (from his post/position/the company) until the investigation is completed. All bets are off on if the former CEO's brother or sister will take the reins of/take over the organization. The organization was/had to be dragged/The former CEO dragged/had to drag the organization into the twenty first century (= reluctant to modernize or resistant to progress). With no money and no job, some of them found themselves/are in (a bit of a/a real/terrible/dire) predicament. They were hoping to get a loan from their banks to help them out of their financial predicament. Some of them went to the manager and explained their predicament, hoping not to get sacked but to/of no avail. Fortunately, he wasn't sacked. When I asked him how he's getting along with his new boss, he said so so (= average or a little below average). One of his colleagues was tempted to take up a job offer from their competitor but he didn't want to burn his boats/bridges with his company. Is he paid a regular wage/monthly salary or is it by commission only? Each person/worker is given a quota (= An amount of something that someone expects or needs to have or achieve) of tickets to sell/students to whom they sell the courses. Some salespeople are on commission only/For some employees, most of the work/jobs they do is/are on commission. Some salespeople only get paid if they make/meet/achieve their quota and they're worried that they won't achieve this year's sales quota. Most workers earn/get/are on a basic salary of thousands of dollars plus an eleven percent commission on everything they sell/every sale/and then... on top. He earned five thousand dollars in commission last month. He never takes his full quotas of holidays though. Oops, I think I made a boo boo (= a silly mistake). I hope she's not too upset/I called the client Paul rather than Leonard for the whole meeting/session. The prospect of sharing an office with a colleague of his who's a bully fills him with horror. His wife is alarmed/appalled at/by/concerned about/for her husband about/for/at/by/over/upset about/over/at/by/dreads (= very worried)/doesn't relish the prospect of sharing an office with him. He had a crush on a female colleague of his. Traveling around the world alone is a daunting prospect so he relishes the exciting/attractive prospect of traveling the world with her. He secretly relishes the prospect/thought/idea of being alone with her/chance of/for a date (to dinner) with her/of going.../opportunity for a date with her/of/for going... A date with her is an exciting/attractive prospect. Once/There was one time when he went to a bar, being under the impression that she would be there so he said my plan didn't work out so it's back to the drawing board. However, this time he knew for sure that she would be at a party. Knowing she would be there, he said to himself hopefully, touch wood she's going to be in there most of the time.

At the party, he plucked up (his/the) courage to approach her, asking her out to dinner next week so he's excited/thrilled/delighted at the prospect of seeing her again. The second time they met up, they went Dutch/he went Dutch with her (= share the cost of something, especially a meal) on a meal in the restaurant. In my book, dinner being on you is better than going Dutch with your date. They have two domestic helpers because their farmhouse is enormous and they lack any/have no inclination towards/for housework. She and her family manage/run/own/have a farm. The land (in that area) is as flat as a pancake (= very flat). She showed me around her farmhouse including her room. She said we'll have more space if we knock down the adjoining wall. They enjoy living in the countryside. Pollution has a negative effect on the health of everyone living in the city, not to mention (= use this to add extra information) the damage to the environment. They've adopted several dogs and cats. They understand when you've adopted a pet, you have/take responsibility for playing with that pet and taking care of its physical needs, ensuring that it's loved and well fed/make/give a commitment to.../you've committed to playing.../you cannot back out of your commitment to play... One of her dogs and one of her cats have recently borne/given birth a litter (= born at the same time and have the same mother) of puppies and kittens. The dog seemed parched so I gave it some water. Her grandad/grandpa had just got home from going fishing and hooked his cane over the back of the chair. He's such a cheapskate that he cuts his hair himself. He's very kind and generous who kept saying make yourself home and kept offering me food and drinks. You make me feel like a freeloader. A freeloader is a person who takes advantage of others' generosity, such as food, money and a room in a house without giving anything in return/exchange. How's your day been? Sit, take a load off. Spill the beans/the tea. Come in/Come on in and take a load off (your feet)/Do sit down and make yourself comfortable (= relaxed and free from pain). How many salmon/bass/fish did you hook? While doing fishing, he inadvertently kicked his shoe into the lake which was then floating on the surface of the water so he immediately hooked the shoe out of the water with his cane. Then he sat on the sofa/settee and watched a nature/wildlife documentary where it featured a pack of wolves/a parliament of owls/a pride of lions/a swarm of bees in the forest and their lives/a school of fish/whales/dolphins swimming in the ocean and their lives. He's seventy now and he doesn't get around/about much anymore/still can get about. Amazing/Last week, he was in Japan and this/next week he's/he'll be in South Korea. He (really) gets about, doesn't he? Her grandma was most of her life a non-smoking teetotaller and lived modestly. Her uncle and auntie's horizons (= the limit of a person's knowledge, experience and interest) are limited to events within the town community. How many Covid jabs/shots/vaccines/vaccinations did you have/get? So did I. Did you have AstraZeneca or Pfizer or Moderna? In Hong Kong, we had BionTech and Sinovac. These were the main ones. And I had the latter. I remember the situation being/was grim/gloomy/bleak. There was no new drug at hand/on the horizon that would make this contagious/infectious disease easier to treat. The virus/disease was so virulent (= causing many people to become ill very quickly). She was supposed to make a speech but someone else agreed to do it for her. Before that, she said to herself hopefully, touch wood someone else will do it for me. I'm so relieved that I don't have to make/give/deliver a speech. It's/That's (such) a load/weight off my mind. She remembered as a kid her parents dragging/would drag her and her brother kicking and screaming to their grandparents' house in the countryside/a camp every summer.

A vacant plot of land and a vegetable land adjoins his house. A barn also adjoins an area of land/the field where the farm animals live. She has a stallion and a gravid mare who has borne several foals. Most animals bear their young in spring. She put her dog on a lead, tying the lead to her dog to her collar/tying the lead to his harness. While showing me around her farmhouse, she hooked/hitched a trailer/tractor onto/to her car, drove her car to the other side/end of her farm, unhooked/unhitched the trailer/tractor from her car and left them there. Simultaneously, she showed me a beautiful and serene lake nearby in which a flock of ducks and ducklings, a gaggle of geese and a few swans and cyngets were swimming. Standing by it, I took in the beauty and the serenity of the lake. Near the lake, I also noticed a flock of birds/cuckoos, a covey/bevy of quail/quails, a murder of crows, a herd of deers and fawns and a mob/court/troop of kangaroos and joeys as well as bears/pandas/wolves/foxes and their (bear) cubs. Cuckoos are able to lay their eggs in other birds' nests. On her farm, she has a flock of chickens and chicks, a flock of sheeps and lambs, a rafter of turkeys and cattle. Some of her hens aren't laying well (= not producing many eggs). She said the other day, rainwater filled up the container again and we used it to water the houseplants (= a plant that you grow in a pot and keep indoors)/pot plants. Later, I threw her the rope/threw the rope to her who then caught the rope and knotted it around/tied it to the post/tree. The tree she planted had never/finally borne fruit/took a long time to bear fruit. Then we walked/headed diagonally across the field towards/to reach her farmhouse in which she unhooked her bra/necklace and she put on another bra/necklace, reaching behind her back/neck to do up/fasten the hooks/hook. There was a clasp attached to the necklace/bracelet. She threw on/pulled on a half zip jumper/cardigan/cardy with a zip that only goes down from the neck to the chest but it was itchy/scratchy so she ripped it off (= remove a piece of clothing very quickly and carelessly), crumpled it (into a ball) and chucked/slung/tossed it onto the floor. She bought it a long time ago and has only worn it twice and it's already begun to pill (BrE bobble)/already pilled (BrE bobbled)/it's snugged because the last time she wore it, she snugged it on a barbed wire fence surrounding a field in which cows/cattle were grazing/a wire fence/the roses bushes/thorns while she was strolling leisirely in the countryside/thorns snugged it while... and the zip is jammed. Then she put/threw/slipped on/slipped into a hoodie with a diagonal white stripe on the front and brought along her diary which has a diagonal black stripe on the cover. Then we went for a pleasant saunter in the countryside/a rural area/town in Tokyo/a suburb of Tokyo/the suburbs of Tokyo/suburban Tokyo where we started strolling leisurely/saunter pleasantly along a road that runs/is parallel to the river. For example, Queen's Road Central is parallel to Wellington Street. The two roads are parallel. Later, we reached the city centre where we walked/headed diagonally across the square towards/to reach her favourite cafe. As we were strolling there, a pedestrian asked us how they could get to the shopping centre/mall. To reach the shopping centre, you cut through/across (= get to somewhere by a quicker and more direct way than the usual way) the park/car park/It's quickest if you cut diagonally through/across the park. The route/path goes diagonally through/across the city/park. She drew a diagonal line from one corner to the other and wrote down the tasks she needed to do/carry out/complete during/in the daytime and at nighttime, showing each part in a different colour. She smudged the line/her handwriting with her fingers/hand/Some words were smeared so she got a new piece of paper and did it/started all over again.

The top/upper part coloured yellow showed the tasks in the daytime while the bottom/lower part coloured red showed the tasks at nighttime. She teaches piano too. Some of her students still can't distinguish (the difference) between a tenuto and an accent/distinguish a tenuto from an accent/tell the difference between a tenuto and an accent/tell a tenuto from an accent/discriminate between a tenuto and an accent. Some of them were always in and out of the zone during their lessons. Some of them use convenient piano benches/Some of their piano benches are convenient because they can store the piano books inside the piano benches/stools. Sit with your knees straight. Don't sit with your knees apart/open. Don't sit with your ankles locked/crossed/with locked ankles/in the figure four (leg) lock position. It's an alternating pattern of notes with lines through the middle and notes in the spaces between the lines. A sharp/flat means playing the next key to the right/left, whether (it's)/be it black or white. She drew a chair/stool nearby up/over to the piano and began/started teaching. The pages keep getting blown around by your fan. Can you turn the fan a little to the left/right/along so that the pages doesn't keep turning/flipping over/the sheets doesn't fall off the stand? He's made a good start but needs to carry on working on the basics, such as note reading/He's done really well to get to grade two, but now needs to reinforce his note reading skills in order to progress onto more challenging repertoire. I think his sightreading is quite good but there is room for improvement. He's making rapid progress with the four pieces that she's learning. He's doing a good job. Wind up the metronome. There's a knob/part on its side that you turn (several times) in order to make it operate. From January onwards, we'll be back to four pm as usual. Would you also like her to commence weekly lessons? As you missed half an hour's lesson last time, you can pay half an hour less in February/you can deduct half an hour's fee in February. Her pianist friend wants to give her students a lesson too. Some of my students' levels are a lot lower than university standards so when you teach them always find something positive to say first then be gentle with any criticism. When she asked her friend in a different field to write a testimonial. Her friend replied in the following way. Hi, sorry I am only seeing this now. I wish you the very best with your business but I don't feel comfortable putting my name to something that I don't use or know. I hope you understand. Wishing you the best. She occasionally runs over time/the lesson occasionally runs over/overruns by five minutes. When she's late for her students' lessons, she either ends the lesson later if she can or will make up the time next lesson. She has a personal phone and a separate work phone. Once/There was one time when she knew she would be late but she couldn't contact her student. WhatsApp is the most effective/an excellent means (= a method of way of doing something) of communication/She communicates with her students primarily by means of WhatsApp messages. She needed to find/look for other means/an alternative means of letting her student know she was going to be late. She had tried to phone him/give him a buzz and make a voice call and a video call to him on WhatsApp but he didn't answer. She said to herself there must be some means by which she could contact him. In the end, she had used every possible means of contacting him/knew she had no means of letting him know she was going to be late. As she was worried that her student wouldn't be free to have an extra/additional half an hour lesson straight after the usual time at which his lesson finished to make up for the time she had missed, she just deleted her previous messages and sent him a new message an hour in advance that she couldn't make it/messaged him, saying she couldn't make it.

Real estate is his parents' means of livelihood/bread and butter/His parents' bread and butter (= bread and butter issues or matters are basic and important to most people because they affect them personally) business is real estate/His parents earn their livelihood from real estate. They owned a plot/area/piece of land on which they've built several residential buildings in which the flats are for people to buy or rent. Housing prices are fluctuating between nine million seven hundred thousand four hundred eleven dollars and two hundred twelve million dollars. Their homebuyers and tenants often ask about bread and butter issues, such as hot water supply and air conditioning before purchasing or renting flats/Hot water supply and air conditioning are the sort of bread and butter issues homebuyers and tenants ask about... Even if you don't know his parents' background, you can tell from the clothes his dad/mum wears he's/she's a man/woman of means/they wear they're people of means who has/have the means of buying dozens of houses and making a killing with/on them/with which/on which they can make a killing. They have two massive houses in the city, not to mention their holiday home by the beach/the villa (= a large and luxurious house, usually in the countryside or near the sea, especially in Europe and often one that you use or rent while you're on holiday) on the island. While growing up poor/in a poor family, his dad learnt to live within his means/His dad was brought up (= care for a child, teaching him or her how to behave, etc.) to live within his means. If you can't afford to pay off (= finish paying money owed for something) your credit card bill at the end of the month, you're living beyond your means. He didn't travel much/may not have travelled much as a kid/young man because his family wasn't well-off/well-to-do but he's (certainly) made up for lost time (= doing something actively and with enthusiasm because you haven't had the opportunity to do it before or when you were younger) now. Some people ordered/placed an order on the touchscreen. Did you mistakenly tap my card twice (on the device)? I was just worried that you mistakenly/unintentionally tapped my card twice which would then be charged twice/, resulting in the price being deducted twice (from my credit card/account). There was a smudge of lipstick on the cup so they made another hot chocolate for her. She originally wanted to have a cappuccino/Americano/mocha/latte but the cafe/they had/were sold out of cappuccinos.../it had sold out. Finding the water ice cold, she asked for a warmer glass. That water is a bit cold/I find that water a bit cold. Could I have some warm water? As I wanted to get a mint hot chocolate and I had lots of coins in my bag that I wanted to use because they were heavy, I emptied my bag on the table in order to find them. She immediately said what're you doing? You've emptied your bag all over the table. I then said there's method to my madness (= strange logic). I've emptied my bag over the table because it's/emptying my bag over the table makes it easier and quicker to find all my coins. Then I'll re-pack my bag. There was a free chair beside me. Instead of placing my bag in it, I left it to other people who might need it/I let others who might need it take it. While drinking her hot chocolate in sips, she talked about her family holiday to Japan where they had/stayed in adjacent/adjoining rooms at a hotel that is adjacent to/handy for the train station which made their family holiday a breeze. On our family holiday to Japan, we asked for adjacent/adjoining rooms and our hotel is adjacent to/handy for the train station. Both our adjoining rooms and the location of the hotel made our family holiday a breeze.

Once/There was one time while my cousin was on holiday in Japan, he could hear voices from the adjoining room in his hotel which sounded spooky, being sinister (= making you feel that something bad or evil might happen) or ghostly in a way that caused fear and unease/being strange and frightening/gave him the jimjams. There's a cemetery near his hotel which he didn't realize until he arrived at his hotel. The cemetery was/became really spooky/menacing (= making you think someone is gling to do something bad/threatening)/had a really spooky atmosphere late at night/There's something sinister about the cemetery/The cemetery had a sinister appearance. On the first night, he overheard a (creepy) ghost story/someone on his phone tell a (creepy) ghost story outside his room. Out of interest, he walked to the door, looked through the peephole and eavesdropped on his phone call/conversation/ghost story but it got/became a bit/increasingly spooky/which created a rather (= rather) spooky atmosphere and he later regretted secretly listening to it because it made him hard to fall asleep. He heard the footsteps recede into the distance. Then he opened the curtains and looked out the window. He noticed a sinister-looking man/a man whose face/look was menacing sitting on/at the corner of the cemetery who looked up, noticed my cousin and moved menacingly towards him, giving/with a low menacing laugh which he could faintly hear in his hotel room which only had/with only/as it only had one huge fixed window. The man had dark, sinister eyes that made him nervous when he looked at him. Later, we moved over to the table by which we sat on the sofa/settee. She placed the Chopin nocturne book and the sonata book on the table next to each other. I asked what she was doing. It turned out there was method to her madness. She was taking a photo of them and sending it to her student who was going to buy it for her next lesson. Then she took a stack (= neatly piled)/pile of leaflets and envelopes out of her bag and placed/sorted/arranged them in/into two (neat) (separate) piles/and stacked them (up)/piled them (up) (neatly). It turned out the leaflets were an ad/advert/advertisement for her piano teaching/to promote/advertise her piano teaching and she was going to send them to other people's houses. She had five hundred envelopes to stuff with leaflets/had five hundred leaflets to stuff into envelopes. Then she sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor where she was stuffing leaflets into the envelopes, tearing the sheets of stamps along the perforations and sticking a stamp on each envelope. While doing so, I sank back into/leaned back against the cushions and took/had a sip/a few sips of the (mint/hazelnut) hot chocolate, us continuing to chat. She's recently had an interview for teaching piano at a music centre during which she was tested on piano music to measure her knowledge of piano music and her ability to play the piano. She said both the interview and the test were a breeze. You've really got to prepare for these things. You can't just wing it. She once hadn't prepared for an interview/She hadn't prepared for an interview (just) the once so she had to wing it and in the end, she didn't get/land the job. She turned up without thinking about the questions she might get asked so she was only able to come up with wishy-washy answers. Just as a manager can't take a wishy-washy approach to meetings/problems/dealing with problems, so you can't take a wishy-washy approach to interviews. You can't... just as/in the same way as/in the same way that a manager... If a wishy-washy manager is too scared to talk to their staff, problems will get worse. In the same way, if you write something wishy-washy in your assignments or exams, you won't get any marks. She suggested walking to the massage parlour for a massage. Then I said it's too far to walk, not to mention the fact that it'll probably be closed by now anyway.

Instead, we went to an ice crram shop. She said I haven't been to that ice cream shop/place in ages/yonks. Come to think of it (= use this when you suddenly remember something), I don't think we've ever taken you there. We're going now. When we headed back, she knocked on the door with a door knocker but no one answered the door so she put the key into the keyhole and turned the door handle/door knob to open the door after which she filed her nails and plucked her eyebrows. She originally invited her friends to her place for a drink but her friend had informed her about/of taking a rain check on (= cannot accept an invitation now, but would like to do so at a later time) that drink due to work so she was terribly/bitterly/deeply/sorely disappointed/absolutely gutted at/by/about it, slumping her shoulders. Mind if I take a rain check on that drink? I have to work late tonight. I would totally be up for that but I'm running some errands. I have to tie up some loose ends first as I've got stuff at home that I have to finish/I would love to do that but I'm running a few errands. I have to tie up a few loose ends because I have to go home and finish the tasks that I was doing. They were supposed to go to the cinema but things are up in the air/all bets are off (= unpredictable) now that Paul is feeling under the weather. They still haven't replied if he's got/landed the job, meaning that it's (all) up in the air, isn't it? Let's assume they can make it and make plans on that basis. The next day, we went to the harbour to watch a (big) firework/the (big) fireworks/a (New Year's Eve) firework display/a fireworks display/a display of fireworks. Thousands of people jammed into the square/by the harbour to watch the fireworks as a signal that the festival had started/, signifying that the festival had started. They let off the fireworks at midnight when the sky was alight with hundreds of fireworks, signifying... She finds her friend so adorable that she can't help pinching/but pinch her cheeks, shaking them and feeling their softness and fleshiness. While pinching her cheeks, she alternated between stretching them and moving them in circular motions/Whenever she pinches her friend's cheeks, it's an alternating pattern of pinching one side at a time and pinching both cheeks. While doing so, she feels the softness and fleshiness of them. She pinches quite a big chunk of (the skin on) her cheeks/a small part/a tiny bit of (the skin on) her cheeks. She cups her face (in her hands) and pinches her cheeks. How can you justify always pinching her cheeks? She justified pinching her friend's cheeks by saying she's so adorable/Her pinching her friend's cheeks was justified when we saw how adorable her was/Her cuteness/Her friend being so adorable justified her pinching her cheeks. Her brother who didn't understand this gesture of love and affection/this popular expression of affection asked her to justify herself/her action to him. She pinched her friend's cheeks on the basis of her cuteness/basis that she's adorable.

2.
One day during my trip, I visited my friend's house which backs onto (= its back faces it) a river. She looked through the peephole and opened the door. She's tall, six foot one and big boned (= of a person or animal, of larger than average build without being fat). She has a good/great/lovely/beautiful/amazing figure. She does a lot of exercise and consumes healthy food to keep her figure. I've never seen her lose her figure/She does a lot of exercise and consumes foods that are good for her health and the figure so she's watching her figure. Most women have to watch their figure. She also loves dancing and has weekly dancing lessons. Dancing is fun and great for your figure. She doesn't (like to) talk shop at the weekends/over a coffee. She had several artificial Christmas trees. We can make a killing on these artificial Christmas trees if we are able to market them in time for the holidays. She's looking to book a holiday package so she's mulling over all the options/all the packages she's interested in. She needs a few days to mull things over before she makes up her mind. Unlike her younger brother who tends to dwell on the past/past memories instead of moving forward, She's a positive person who doesn't dwell on past mistakes and present miseries. She always says to her younger brother so you made a mistake. There's no need to dwell on it/I don't want to dwell on this subject for too long/I have no time to dwell on present miseries (= great unhappiness). If you hadn't made mistakes, you wouldn't have learnt how to make things right. Why the long face? (= why do you look sad?)/What's up/What's wrong? Apparently, her brother has recently broken up with her girlfriend so he's been wandering around/moping about, wandering around there not doing anything, looking and feeling unhappy/dilly-dallying (= waste time by/through being slow or aimless wandering or indecision) all week/acting like a lovesick teenager. He's become good for nothing (= a person who's lazy and not helpful or useful)/a good for nothing layabout (= a person who habitually does little or no work). What he needs is a bit of/a little retail therapy. Two weeks before their breakup, their relationship was already on shaky ground because she always snapped at him for no reason. As he's down in the dumps, of course I didn't rub it in but the previous day, his friend said I made a bit of a boo boo asking him about his girlfriend. Last month, he got out of bed (on) the wrong side and was grumpy all day. Apparently, it's because her friend got to him so she told him that he shouldn't let anyone get to him. He's got a job selling insurance but he isn't exactly making a killing. Her dad is fuddy-duddy (= old-fashioned and boring)/a fuddy-duddy/a stick in the mud and a creature of habit. Every time the whole family dines out, he has to go to the same restaurant. Her parents made a killing with/on the sales of their house in Tokyo. Her elder brother got hitched last year. When his wife bore him a son, he couldn't hide his delight/joy. She had borne four kids by the time she was thirty. When the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, it alarmed him/he was alarmed/He felt a growing sense of alarm when the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, realizing she might face the terrifying prospect of unemployment. As the company was on shaky ground, many workers would face the gloomy/grim/bleak prospect of losing their jobs. The threat of unemployment was looming at hand/on the horizon (= likely to happen or exist soon). He said if he likes his job, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles (= when something slightly unlucky has happened that couldn't have been prevented and so must be accepted).

One of his colleagues saw a job ad from their competitor and proceeded to have an interview immediately as he was worried someone else would take the job. It turned out he landed the job. Simultaneously, he burnt his boats/bridges with his old company/I burnt my boats/bridges when I took this management position. Even if the company didn't close down, it would be a huge pay cut to go back to my old job and my boss would be furious. The business was left high and dry following the sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees/The sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees left the business high and dry, including a manager/chairperson who was dragged kicking and screaming into resignation after/due to a sex scandal. He's (been forced to) stepped down/stepped aside (as manager/chairperson) (from his post/position/the company) until the investigation is completed. All bets are off on if the former CEO's brother or sister will take the reins of/take over the organization. The organization was/had to be dragged/The former CEO dragged/had to drag the organization into the twenty first century (= reluctant to modernize or resistant to progress). With no money and no job, some of them found themselves/are in (a bit of a/a real/terrible/dire) predicament. They were hoping to get a loan from their banks to help them out of their financial predicament. Some of them went to the manager and explained their predicament, hoping not to get sacked but to/of no avail. Fortunately, he wasn't sacked. When I asked him how he's getting along with his new boss, he said so so (= average or a little below average). One of his colleagues was tempted to take up a job offer from their competitor but he didn't want to burn his boats/bridges with his company. Is he paid a regular wage/monthly salary or is it by commission only? Each person/worker is given a quota (= An amount of something that someone expects or needs to have or achieve) of tickets to sell/students to whom they sell the courses. Some salespeople are on commission only/For some employees, most of the work/jobs they do is/are on commission. Some salespeople only get paid if they make/meet/achieve their quota and they're worried that they won't achieve this year's sales quota. Most workers earn/get/are on a basic salary of thousands of dollars plus an eleven percent commission on everything they sell/every sale/and then... on top. He earned five thousand dollars in commission last month. He never takes his full quotas of holidays though. Oops, I think I made a boo boo (= a silly mistake). I hope she's not too upset/I called the client Paul rather than Leonard for the whole meeting/session. The prospect of sharing an office with a colleague of his who's a bully fills him with horror. His wife is alarmed/appalled at/by/concerned about/for her husband about/for/at/by/over/upset about/over/at/by/dreads (= very worried)/doesn't relish the prospect of sharing an office with him. He had a crush on a female colleague of his. Traveling around the world alone is a daunting prospect so he relishes the exciting/attractive prospect of traveling the world with her. He secretly relishes the prospect/thought/idea of being alone with her/chance of/for a date (to dinner) with her/of going.../opportunity for a date with her/of/for going... A date with her is an exciting/attractive prospect. Once/There was one time when he went to a bar, being under the impression that she would be there so he said my plan didn't work out so it's back to the drawing board. However, this time he knew for sure that she would be at a party. Knowing she would be there, he said to himself hopefully, touch wood she's going to be in there most of the time.

At the party, he plucked up (his/the) courage to approach her, asking her out to dinner next week so he's excited/thrilled/delighted at the prospect of seeing her again. The second time they met up, they went Dutch/he went Dutch with her (= share the cost of something, especially a meal) on a meal in the restaurant. In my book, dinner being on you is better than going Dutch with your date. They have two domestic helpers because their farmhouse is enormous and they lack any/have no inclination towards/for housework. She and her family manage/run/own/have a farm. The land (in that area) is as flat as a pancake (= very flat). She showed me around her farmhouse including her room. She said we'll have more space if we knock down the adjoining wall. They enjoy living in the countryside. Pollution has a negative effect on the health of everyone living in the city, not to mention (= use this to add extra information) the damage to the environment. They've adopted several dogs and cats. They understand when you've adopted a pet, you have/take responsibility for playing with that pet and taking care of its physical needs, ensuring that it's loved and well fed/make/give a commitment to.../you've committed to playing.../you cannot back out of your commitment to play... One of her dogs and one of her cats have recently borne/given birth a litter (= born at the same time and have the same mother) of puppies and kittens. The dog seemed parched so I gave it some water. Her grandad/grandpa had just got home from going fishing and hooked his cane over the back of the chair. He's such a cheapskate that he cuts his hair himself. He's very kind and generous who kept saying make yourself home and kept offering me food and drinks. You make me feel like a freeloader. A freeloader is a person who takes advantage of others' generosity, such as food, money and a room in a house without giving anything in return/exchange. How's your day been? Sit, take a load off. Spill the beans/the tea. Come in/Come on in and take a load off (your feet)/Do sit down and make yourself comfortable (= relaxed and free from pain). How many salmon/bass/fish did you hook? While doing fishing, he inadvertently kicked his shoe into the lake which was then floating on the surface of the water so he immediately hooked the shoe out of the water with his cane. Then he sat on the sofa/settee and watched a nature/wildlife documentary where it featured a pack of wolves/a parliament of owls/a pride of lions/a swarm of bees in the forest and their lives/a school of fish/whales/dolphins swimming in the ocean and their lives. He's seventy now and he doesn't get around/about much anymore/still can get about. Amazing/Last week, he was in Japan and this/next week he's/he'll be in South Korea. He (really) gets about, doesn't he? Her grandma was most of her life a non-smoking teetotaller and lived modestly. Her uncle and auntie's horizons (= the limit of a person's knowledge, experience and interest) are limited to events within the town community. Her uncle said I'm just popping out to get some milk. I'll be back in a minute. When she called her travel agent to book the flights and hotels for them, his assistant said I'm afraid Leonard's not here. He's just popped out for lunch. Can I take a message? They have storage space/a storage area above their ceiling where they store (away) their collection of Christmas lights and decorations until/for next winter. Her friend stored her possessions (= something that you have or own at a particular time) in there while she was living in Okinawa last summer. She pushed the ceiling tile open, popped (= put or move something somewhere quickly, usually for a short time) her possessions in there and slid it closed. How many Covid jabs/shots/vaccines/vaccinations did you have/get? So did I. Did you have AstraZeneca or Pfizer or Moderna? In Hong Kong, we had BionTech and Sinovac. These were the main ones. And I had the latter.

I remember the situation being/was grim/gloomy/bleak. There was no new drug at hand/on the horizon that would make this contagious/infectious disease easier to treat. The virus/disease was so virulent (= causing many people to become ill very quickly). She was supposed to make a speech but someone else agreed to do it for her. Before that, she said to herself hopefully, touch wood someone else will do it for me. I'm so relieved that I don't have to make/give/deliver a speech. It's/That's (such) a load/weight off my mind. She remembered as a kid her parents dragging/would drag her and her brother kicking and screaming to their grandparents' house in the countryside/a camp every summer. She said pop your shoes on and let's go. We plucked a purple/green grape from the bunch and popped it in/into our mouths. A vacant plot of land and a vegetable land adjoins his house. A barn also adjoins an area of land/the field where the farm animals live. She has a stallion and a gravid mare who has borne several foals. Most animals bear their young in spring. She put her dog on a lead, tying the lead to her dog to her collar/tying the lead to his harness. While showing me around her farmhouse, she hooked/hitched a trailer/tractor onto/to her car, drove her car to the other side/end of her farm, unhooked/unhitched the trailer/tractor from her car and left them there. Simultaneously, she showed me a beautiful and serene lake nearby in which a flock of ducks and ducklings, a gaggle of geese and a few swans and cyngets were swimming. Standing by it, I took in the beauty and the serenity of the lake. Near the lake, I also noticed a flock of birds/cuckoos, a covey/bevy of quail/quails, a murder of crows, a herd of deers and fawns and a mob/court/troop of kangaroos and joeys as well as bears/pandas/wolves/foxes and their (bear) cubs. Cuckoos are able to lay their eggs in other birds' nests. On her farm, she has a flock of chickens and chicks, a flock of sheeps and lambs, a rafter of turkeys and cattle. Some of her hens aren't laying well (= not producing many eggs). She said the other day, rainwater filled up the container again and we used it to water the houseplants (= a plant that you grow in a pot and keep indoors)/pot plants. Later, I threw her the rope/threw the rope to her who then caught the rope and knotted it around/tied it to the post/tree. The tree she planted had never/finally borne fruit/took a long time to bear fruit. Then we walked/headed diagonally across the field towards/to reach her farmhouse in which she unhooked her bra/necklace and she put on another bra/necklace, reaching behind her back/neck to do up/fasten the hooks/hook. There was a clasp attached to the necklace/bracelet. She threw on/pulled on a half zip jumper/cardigan/cardy with a zip that only goes down from the neck to the chest but it was itchy/scratchy so she ripped it off (= remove a piece of clothing very quickly and carelessly), crumpled it (into a ball) and chucked/slung/tossed it onto the floor. She bought it a long time ago and has only worn it twice and it's already begun to pill (BrE bobble)/already pilled (BrE bobbled)/it's snugged because the last time she wore it, she snugged it on a barbed wire fence surrounding a field in which cows/cattle were grazing/a wire fence/the roses bushes/thorns while she was strolling leisirely in the countryside/thorns snugged it while... and the zip is jammed. Then she put/threw/slipped on/slipped into a hoodie with a diagonal white stripe on the front and brought along her diary which has a diagonal black stripe on the cover. Then we went for a pleasant saunter in the countryside/a rural area/town in Tokyo/a suburb of Tokyo/the suburbs of Tokyo/suburban Tokyo where we started strolling leisurely/saunter pleasantly along a road that runs/is parallel to the river.

For example, Queen's Road Central is parallel to Wellington Street. The two roads are parallel. Later, we reached the city centre where we walked/headed diagonally across the square towards/to reach her favourite cafe. As we were strolling there, a pedestrian asked us how they could get to the shopping centre/mall. To reach the shopping centre, you cut through/across (= get to somewhere by a quicker and more direct way than the usual way) the park/car park/It's quickest if you cut diagonally through/across the park. The route/path goes diagonally through/across the city/park. She drew a diagonal line from one corner to the other and wrote down the tasks she needed to do/carry out/complete during/in the daytime and at nighttime, showing each part in a different colour. She smudged the line/her handwriting with her fingers/hand/Some words were smeared so she got a new piece of paper and did it/started all over again. The top/upper part coloured yellow showed the tasks in the daytime while the bottom/lower part coloured red showed the tasks at nighttime. She teaches piano too. Some of her students still can't distinguish (the difference) between a tenuto and an accent/distinguish a tenuto from an accent/tell the difference between a tenuto and an accent/tell a tenuto from an accent/discriminate between a tenuto and an accent. Some of them were always in and out of the zone during their lessons. Some of them use convenient piano benches/Some of their piano benches are convenient because they can store the piano books inside the piano benches/stools. Sit with your knees straight. Don't sit with your knees apart/open. Don't sit with your ankles locked/crossed/with locked ankles/in the figure four (leg) lock position. It's an alternating pattern of notes with lines through the middle and notes in the spaces between the lines. A sharp/flat means playing the next key to the right/left, whether (it's)/be it black or white. She drew a chair/stool nearby up/over to the piano and began/started teaching. The pages keep getting blown around by your fan. Can you turn the fan a little to the left/right/along so that the pages doesn't keep turning/flipping over/the sheets doesn't fall off the stand? He's made a good start but needs to carry on working on the basics, such as note reading/He's done really well to get to grade two, but now needs to reinforce his note reading skills in order to progress onto more challenging repertoire. I think his sightreading is quite good but there is room for improvement. He's making rapid progress with the four pieces that she's learning. He's doing a good job. Wind up the metronome. There's a knob/part on its side that you turn (several times) in order to make it operate. From January onwards, we'll be back to four pm as usual. Would you also like her to commence weekly lessons? As you missed half an hour's lesson last time, you can pay half an hour less in February/you can deduct half an hour's fee in February. Her pianist friend wants to give her students a lesson too. Some of my students' levels are a lot lower than university standards so when you teach them always find something positive to say first then be gentle with any criticism. When she asked her friend in a different field to write a testimonial. Her friend replied in the following way. Hi, sorry I am only seeing this now. I wish you the very best with your business but I don't feel comfortable putting my name to something that I don't use or know. I hope you understand. Wishing you the best. She occasionally runs over time/the lesson occasionally runs over/overruns by five minutes. When she's late for her students' lessons, she either ends the lesson later if she can or will make up the time next lesson. She has a personal phone and a separate work phone. Once/There was one time when she knew she would be late but she couldn't contact her student.

WhatsApp is the most effective/an excellent means (= a method of way of doing something) of communication/She communicates with her students primarily by means of WhatsApp messages. She needed to find/look for other means/an alternative means of letting her student know she was going to be late. She had tried to phone him/give him a buzz and make a voice call and a video call to him on WhatsApp but he didn't answer. She said to herself there must be some means by which she could contact him. In the end, she had used every possible means of contacting him/knew she had no means of letting him know she was going to be late. As she was worried that her student wouldn't be free to have an extra/additional half an hour lesson straight after the usual time at which his lesson finished to make up for the time she had missed, she just deleted her previous messages and sent him a new message an hour in advance that she couldn't make it/messaged him, saying she couldn't make it. Real estate is his parents' means of livelihood/bread and butter/His parents' bread and butter (= bread and butter issues or matters are basic and important to most people because they affect them personally) business is real estate/His parents earn their livelihood from real estate. They owned a plot/area/piece of land on which they've built several residential buildings in which the flats are for people to buy or rent. Housing prices are fluctuating between nine million seven hundred thousand four hundred eleven dollars and two hundred twelve million dollars. Their homebuyers and tenants often ask about bread and butter issues, such as hot water supply and air conditioning before purchasing or renting flats/Hot water supply and air conditioning are the sort of bread and butter issues homebuyers and tenants ask about... Even if you don't know his parents' background, you can tell from the clothes his dad/mum wears he's/she's a man/woman of means/they wear they're people of means who has/have the means of buying dozens of houses and making a killing with/on them/with which/on which they can make a killing. They have two massive houses in the city, not to mention their holiday home by the beach/the villa (= a large and luxurious house, usually in the countryside or near the sea, especially in Europe and often one that you use or rent while you're on holiday) on the island. While growing up poor/in a poor family, his dad learnt to live within his means/His dad was brought up (= care for a child, teaching him or her how to behave, etc.) to live within his means. If you can't afford to pay off (= finish paying money owed for something) your credit card bill at the end of the month, you're living beyond your means. He didn't travel much/may not have travelled much as a kid/young man because his family wasn't well-off/well-to-do but he's (certainly) made up for lost time (= doing something actively and with enthusiasm because you haven't had the opportunity to do it before or when you were younger) now. Some people ordered/placed an order on the touchscreen. Did you mistakenly tap my card twice (on the device)? I was just worried that you mistakenly/unintentionally tapped my card twice which would then be charged twice/, resulting in the price being deducted twice (from my credit card/account). There was a smudge of lipstick on the cup so they made another hot chocolate for her. She originally wanted to have a cappuccino/Americano/mocha/latte but the cafe/they had/were sold out of cappuccinos.../it had sold out. Finding the water ice cold, she asked for a warmer glass. That water is a bit cold/I find that water a bit cold. Could I have some warm water?

As I wanted to get a mint hot chocolate and I had lots of coins in my bag that I wanted to use because they were heavy, I emptied my bag on the table in order to find them. She immediately said what're you doing? You've emptied your bag all over the table. I then said there's method to my madness (= strange logic). I've emptied my bag over the table because it's/emptying my bag over the table makes it easier and quicker to find all my coins. Then I'll re-pack my bag. There was a free chair beside me. Instead of placing my bag in it, I left it to other people who might need it/I let others who might need it take it. While drinking her hot chocolate in sips, she talked about her family holiday to Japan where they had/stayed in adjacent/adjoining rooms at a hotel that is adjacent to/handy for the train station which made their family holiday a breeze. On our family holiday to Japan, we asked for adjacent/adjoining rooms and our hotel is adjacent to/handy for the train station. Both our adjoining rooms and the location of the hotel made our family holiday a breeze. Once/There was one time while my cousin was on holiday in Japan, he could hear voices from the adjoining room in his hotel which sounded spooky, being sinister (= making you feel that something bad or evil might happen) or ghostly in a way that caused fear and unease/being strange and frightening/gave him the jimjams. There's a cemetery near his hotel which he didn't realize until he arrived at his hotel. The cemetery was/became really spooky/menacing (= making you think someone is gling to do something bad/threatening)/had a really spooky atmosphere late at night/There's something sinister about the cemetery/The cemetery had a sinister appearance. On the first night, he overheard a (creepy) ghost story/someone on his phone tell a (creepy) ghost story outside his room. Out of interest, he walked to the door, looked through the peephole and eavesdropped on his phone call/conversation/ghost story but it got/became a bit/increasingly spooky/which created a rather (= rather) spooky atmosphere and he later regretted secretly listening to it because it made him hard to fall asleep. He heard the footsteps recede into the distance. Then he opened the curtains and looked out the window. He noticed a sinister-looking man/a man whose face/look was menacing sitting on/at the corner of the cemetery who looked up, noticed my cousin and moved menacingly towards him, giving/with a low menacing laugh which he could faintly hear in his hotel room which only had/with only/as it only had one huge fixed window. The man had dark, sinister eyes that made him nervous when he looked at him. Later, we moved over to the table by which we sat on the sofa/settee. She placed the Chopin nocturne book and the sonata book on the table next to each other. I asked what she was doing. It turned out there was method to her madness. She was taking a photo of them and sending it to her student who was going to buy it for her next lesson. Then she took a stack (= neatly piled)/pile of leaflets and envelopes out of her bag and placed/sorted/arranged them in/into two (neat) (separate) piles/and stacked them (up)/piled them (up) (neatly). It turned out the leaflets were an ad/advert/advertisement for her piano teaching/to promote/advertise her piano teaching and she was going to send them to other people's houses. She had five hundred envelopes to stuff with leaflets/had five hundred leaflets to stuff into envelopes. Then she sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor where she was stuffing leaflets into the envelopes, tearing the sheets of stamps along the perforations and sticking a stamp on each envelope. While doing so, I sank back into/leaned back against the cushions and took/had a sip/a few sips of the (mint/hazelnut) hot chocolate, us continuing to chat.

She's recently had an interview for teaching piano at a music centre during which she was tested on piano music to measure her knowledge of piano music and her ability to play the piano. She said both the interview and the test were a breeze. You've really got to prepare for these things. You can't just wing it. She once hadn't prepared for an interview/She hadn't prepared for an interview (just) the once so she had to wing it and in the end, she didn't get/land the job. She turned up without thinking about the questions she might get asked so she was only able to come up with wishy-washy answers. Just as a manager can't take a wishy-washy approach to meetings/problems/dealing with problems, so you can't take a wishy-washy approach to interviews. You can't... just as/in the same way as/in the same way that a manager... If a wishy-washy manager is too scared to talk to their staff, problems will get worse. In the same way, if you write something wishy-washy in your assignments or exams, you won't get any marks. She suggested walking to the massage parlour for a massage. Then I said it's too far to walk, not to mention the fact that it'll probably be closed by now anyway. Instead, we went to an ice crram shop. She said I haven't been to that ice cream shop/place in ages/yonks. Come to think of it (= use this when you suddenly remember something), I don't think we've ever taken you there. We're going now. When we headed back, she knocked on the door with a door knocker but no one answered the door so she put the key into the keyhole and turned the door handle/door knob to open the door after which she filed her nails and plucked her eyebrows. She originally invited her friends to her place for a drink but her friend had informed her about/of taking a rain check on (= cannot accept an invitation now, but would like to do so at a later time) that drink due to work so she was terribly/bitterly/deeply/sorely disappointed/absolutely gutted at/by/about it, slumping her shoulders. Mind if I take a rain check on that drink? I have to work late tonight. I would totally be up for that but I'm running some errands. I have to tie up some loose ends first as I've got stuff at home that I have to finish/I would love to do that but I'm running a few errands. I have to tie up a few loose ends because I have to go home and finish the tasks that I was doing. They were supposed to go to the cinema but things are up in the air/all bets are off (= unpredictable) now that Paul is feeling under the weather. They still haven't replied if he's got/landed the job, meaning that it's (all) up in the air, isn't it? Let's assume they can make it and make plans on that basis. The next day, we went to the harbour to watch a (big) firework/the (big) fireworks/a (New Year's Eve) firework display/a fireworks display/a display of fireworks. Thousands of people jammed into the square/by the harbour to watch the fireworks as a signal that the festival had started/, signifying that the festival had started. They let off the fireworks at midnight when the sky was alight with hundreds of fireworks, signifying... She finds her friend so adorable that she can't help pinching/but pinch her cheeks, shaking them and feeling their softness and fleshiness. While pinching her cheeks, she alternated between stretching them and moving them in circular motions/Whenever she pinches her friend's cheeks, it's an alternating pattern of pinching one side at a time and pinching both cheeks. While doing so, she feels the softness and fleshiness of them. She pinches quite a big chunk of (the skin on) her cheeks/a small part/a tiny bit of (the skin on) her cheeks. She cups her face (in her hands) and pinches her cheeks.

How can you justify always pinching her cheeks? She justified pinching her friend's cheeks by saying she's so adorable/Her pinching her friend's cheeks was justified when we saw how adorable her was/Her cuteness/Her friend being so adorable justified her pinching her cheeks. Her brother who didn't understand this gesture of love and affection/this popular expression of affection asked her to justify herself/her action to him. She pinched her friend's cheeks on the basis of her cuteness/basis that she's adorable.

2.
One day during my trip, I visited my friend's house which backs onto (= its back faces it) a river. She looked through the peephole and opened the door. She's tall, six foot one and big boned (= of a person or animal, of larger than average build without being fat). She has a good/great/lovely/beautiful/amazing figure. She does a lot of exercise and consumes healthy food to keep her figure. I've never seen her lose her figure/She does a lot of exercise and consumes foods that are good for her health and the figure so she's watching her figure. Most women have to watch their figure. She also loves dancing and has weekly dancing lessons. Dancing is fun and great for your figure. She doesn't (like to) talk shop at the weekends/over a coffee. She had several artificial Christmas trees. We can make a killing on these artificial Christmas trees if we are able to market them in time for the holidays. She's looking to book a holiday package so she's mulling over all the options/all the packages she's interested in. She needs a few days to mull things over before she makes up her mind. Unlike her younger brother who tends to dwell on the past/past memories rather than move forward, She's a positive person who doesn't dwell on past mistakes and present miseries. She always says to her younger brother so you made a mistake. There's no need to dwell on it/I don't want to dwell on this subject for too long/I have no time to dwell on present miseries (= great unhappiness). If you hadn't made mistakes, you wouldn't have learnt how to make things right. Why the long face? (= why do you look sad?)/What's up/What's wrong? Apparently, her brother has recently broken up with her girlfriend so he's been wandering around/moping about, wandering around there not doing anything, looking and feeling unhappy/dilly-dallying (= waste time by/through being slow or aimless wandering or indecision) all week/acting like a lovesick teenager. He's become good for nothing (= a person who's lazy and not helpful or useful)/a good for nothing layabout (= a person who habitually does little or no work). What he needs is a bit of/a little retail therapy. Two weeks before their breakup, their relationship was already on shaky ground because she always snapped at him for no reason. As he's down in the dumps, of course I didn't rub it in but the previous day, his friend said I made a bit of a boo boo asking him about his girlfriend. Last month, he got out of bed (on) the wrong side and was grumpy all day. Apparently, it was because someone got to him so she told him that he shouldn't let anyone get to him. He's got a job selling insurance but he isn't exactly making a killing. Her dad is fuddy-duddy (= old-fashioned and boring)/a fuddy-duddy/a stick in the mud and a creature of habit. Every time the whole family dines out, he has to go to the same restaurant. Her parents made a killing with/on the sale of their house in Tokyo. Her elder brother got hitched last year. When his wife bore him a son, he couldn't hide his delight/joy. She had borne four kids by the time she was thirty. When the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, it alarmed him/The company being on shaky ground alarmed him/he was alarmed/He felt a growing sense of alarm when the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, realizing he might face the terrifying/gloomy/grim/bleak prospect of unemployment/losing his job. The threat of unemployment was looming at hand/on the horizon (= likely to happen or exist soon). He said if he likes his job, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles (= when something slightly unlucky has happened that couldn't have been prevented and so must be accepted).

2.
One day during my trip, I visited my friend's house which backs onto (= its back faces it) a river. She looked through the peephole and opened the door. She's tall, six foot one and big boned (= of a person or animal, of larger than average build without being fat). She has a good/great/lovely/beautiful/amazing figure. She does a lot of exercise and consumes healthy food to keep her figure. I've never seen her lose her figure/She does a lot of exercise and consumes foods that are good for her health and the figure so she's watching her figure. Most women have to watch their figure. She also loves dancing and has weekly dancing lessons. Dancing is fun and great for your figure. She doesn't (like to) talk shop at the weekends/over a coffee. She had several artificial Christmas trees. We can make a killing on these artificial Christmas trees if we are able to market them in time for the holidays. She's looking to book a holiday package so she's mulling over all the options/all the packages she's interested in. She needs a few days to mull things over before she makes up her mind. Unlike her younger brother who tends to dwell on the past/past memories rather than move forward, She's a positive person who doesn't dwell on past mistakes and present miseries. She always says to her younger brother so you made a mistake. There's no need to dwell on it/I don't want to dwell on this subject for too long/I have no time to dwell on present miseries (= great unhappiness). If you hadn't made mistakes, you wouldn't have learnt how to make things right. Why the long face? (= why do you look sad?)/What's up/What's wrong? Apparently, her brother has recently broken up with her girlfriend so he's been wandering around/moping about, wandering around there not doing anything, looking and feeling unhappy/dilly-dallying (= waste time by/through being slow or aimless wandering or indecision) all week/acting like a lovesick teenager. He's become good for nothing (= a person who's lazy and not helpful or useful)/a good for nothing layabout (= a person who habitually does little or no work). What he needs is a bit of/a little retail therapy. Two weeks before their breakup, their relationship was already on shaky ground because she always snapped at him for no reason. As he's down in the dumps, of course I didn't rub it in but the previous day, his friend said I made a bit of a boo boo asking him about his girlfriend. Last month, he got out of bed (on) the wrong side and was grumpy all day. Apparently, it was because someone got to him so she told him that he shouldn't let anyone get to him. He's got a job selling insurance but he isn't exactly making a killing. Her dad is fuddy-duddy (= old-fashioned and boring)/a fuddy-duddy/a stick in the mud and a creature of habit. Every time the whole family dines out, he has to go to the same restaurant. Her parents made a killing with/on the sale of their house in Tokyo. Her elder brother got hitched last year. When his wife bore him a son, he couldn't hide his delight/joy. She had borne four kids by the time she was thirty. When the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, it alarmed him/The company being on shaky ground alarmed him/he was alarmed/He felt a growing sense of alarm when the company announced it was going to lay off/pay off a hundred workers, realizing he might face the terrifying/gloomy/grim/bleak prospect of unemployment/losing his job. The threat of unemployment was looming at hand/on the horizon (= likely to happen or exist soon). He said if he likes his job, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles (= when something slightly unlucky has happened that couldn't have been prevented and so must be accepted).

One of his colleagues saw a job ad from their competitor and proceeded to have an interview immediately as he was worried someone else would take the job. It turned out he landed the job. Simultaneously, he burnt his boats/bridges with his old company/I burnt my boats/bridges when I took this management position. Even if the company didn't close down, it would be a huge pay cut to go back to my old job and my boss would be furious. The business was left high and dry following the sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees/The sudden/surprised/unexpected departure of the CEO and several key employees left the business high and dry, including a manager/chairperson who was dragged kicking and screaming into resignation after/due to a sex scandal. He's (been forced to) stepped down/stepped aside (as manager/chairperson) (from his post/position/the company) until the investigation is completed. All bets are off on if the former CEO's brother or sister will take the reins of/take over the organization. The organization was/had to be dragged/The former CEO dragged/had to drag the organization into the twenty first century (= reluctant to modernize or resistant to progress). With no money and no job, some of them found themselves/are in (a bit of a/a real/terrible/dire) predicament. They were hoping to get a loan from their banks to help them out of their financial predicament. Some of them went to the manager and explained their predicament, hoping not to get sacked but to/of no avail. Fortunately, he wasn't sacked. When I asked him how he's getting along with his new boss, he said so so (= average or a little below average). One of his colleagues was tempted to take up a job offer from their competitor but he didn't want to burn his boats/bridges with his company. Is he paid a regular wage/monthly salary or is it by commission only? Each person/worker is given a quota (= An amount of something that someone expects or needs to have or achieve) of tickets to sell/students to whom they sell the courses. Some salespeople are on commission only/For some employees, most of the work/jobs they do is/are on commission. Some salespeople only get paid if they make/meet/achieve their quota and they're worried that they won't achieve this year's sales quota. Most workers earn/get/are on a basic salary of thousands of dollars plus an eleven percent commission on everything they sell/every sale/and then... on top. He earned five thousand dollars in commission last month. He never takes his full quotas of holidays though. Oops, I think I made a boo boo (= a silly mistake). I hope she's not too upset/I called the client Paul rather than Leonard for the whole meeting/session. The prospect of sharing an office with a colleague of his who's a bully fills him with horror. His wife is alarmed/appalled at/by/concerned about/for her husband about/for/at/by/over/upset about/over/at/by/dreads (= very worried)/doesn't relish the prospect of sharing an office with him. He had a crush on a female colleague of his. Traveling around the world alone is a daunting prospect so he relishes the exciting/attractive prospect of traveling the world with her. He secretly relishes the prospect/thought/idea of being alone with her/chance of/for a date (to dinner) with her/of going.../opportunity for a date with her/of/for going... A date with her is an exciting/attractive prospect. Once/There was one time when he went to a bar, being under the impression that she would be there so he said my plan didn't work out so it's back to the drawing board. However, this time he knew for sure that she would be at a party. Knowing she would be there, he said to himself hopefully, touch wood she's going to be in there most of the time.

At the party, he plucked up (his/the) courage to approach her, asking her out to dinner next week so he's excited/thrilled/delighted at the prospect of seeing her again. The second time they met up, they went Dutch/he went Dutch with her (= share the cost of something, especially a meal) on a meal in the restaurant. In my book, dinner being on you is better than going Dutch with your date. They have two domestic helpers because their farmhouse is enormous and they lack any/have no inclination towards/for housework. She and her family manage/run/own/have a farm. The land (in that area) is as flat as a pancake (= very flat). She showed me around her farmhouse including her room. She said we'll have more space if we knock down the adjoining wall. They enjoy living in the countryside. Pollution has a negative effect on the health of everyone living in the city, not to mention (= use this to add extra information) the damage to the environment. They've adopted several dogs and cats. They understand when you've adopted a pet, you have/take responsibility for playing with that pet and taking care of its physical needs, ensuring that it's loved and well fed/make/give a commitment to.../you've committed to playing.../you cannot back out of your commitment to play... One of her dogs and one of her cats have recently borne/given birth a litter (= born at the same time and have the same mother) of puppies and kittens. The dog seemed parched so I gave it some water. Her grandad/grandpa had just got home from going fishing and hooked his cane over the back of the chair. He's such a cheapskate that he cuts his hair himself. He's very kind and generous who kept saying make yourself home and kept offering me food and drinks. You make me feel like a freeloader. A freeloader is a person who takes advantage of others' generosity, such as food, money and a room in a house without giving anything in return/exchange. How's your day been? Sit, take a load off. Spill the beans/the tea. Come in/Come on in and take a load off (your feet)/Do sit down and make yourself comfortable (= relaxed and free from pain). How many salmon/bass/fish did you hook? While doing fishing, he inadvertently kicked his shoe into the lake which was then floating on the surface of the water so he immediately hooked the shoe out of the water with his cane. Then he sat on the sofa/settee and watched a nature/wildlife documentary where it featured a pack of wolves/a parliament of owls/a pride of lions/a swarm of bees in the forest and their lives/a school of fish/whales/dolphins swimming in the ocean and their lives. He's seventy now and he doesn't get around/about much anymore/still can get about. Amazing/Last week, he was in Japan and this/next week he's/he'll be in South Korea. He (really) gets about, doesn't he? Her grandma was most of her life a non-smoking teetotaller and lived modestly. Her uncle and auntie's horizons (= the limit of a person's knowledge, experience and interest) are limited to events within the town community. Her uncle said I'm just popping out to get some milk. I'll be back in a minute. When she called her travel agent to book the flights and hotels for them, his assistant said I'm afraid Leonard's not here. He's just popped out for lunch. Can I take a message? They have storage space/a storage area above their ceiling where they store (away) their collection of Christmas lights and decorations until/for next winter. Her friend stored her possessions (= something that you have or own at a particular time) in there while she was living in Okinawa last summer. She pushed the ceiling tile open, popped (= put or move something somewhere quickly, usually for a short time) her possessions in there and slid it closed. How many Covid jabs/shots/vaccines/vaccinations did you have/get? So did I. Did you have AstraZeneca or Pfizer or Moderna? In Hong Kong, we had BionTech and Sinovac. These were the main ones. And I had the latter.

I remember the situation being/was grim/gloomy/bleak. There was no new drug at hand/on the horizon that would make this contagious/infectious disease easier to treat. The virus/disease was so virulent (= causing many people to become ill very quickly). She was supposed to make a speech but someone else agreed to do it for her. Before that, she said to herself hopefully, touch wood someone else will do it for me. I'm so relieved that I don't have to make/give/deliver a speech. It's/That's (such) a load/weight off my mind. She remembered as a kid her parents dragging/would drag her and her brother kicking and screaming to their grandparents' house in the countryside/a camp every summer. She said pop your shoes on and let's go. We plucked a purple/green grape from the bunch and popped it in/into our mouths. A vacant plot of land and a vegetable land adjoins his house. A barn also adjoins an area of land/the field where the farm animals live. She has a stallion and a gravid mare who has borne several foals. Most animals bear their young in spring. She put her dog on a lead, tying the lead to her dog to her collar/tying the lead to his harness. While showing me around her farmhouse, she hooked/hitched a trailer/tractor onto/to her car, drove her car to the other side/end of her farm, unhooked/unhitched the trailer/tractor from her car and left them there. Simultaneously, she showed me a beautiful and serene lake nearby in which a flock of ducks and ducklings, a gaggle of geese and a few swans and cyngets were swimming. Standing by it, I took in the beauty and the serenity of the lake. Near the lake, I also noticed a flock of birds/cuckoos, a covey/bevy of quail/quails, a murder of crows, a herd of deers and fawns and a mob/court/troop of kangaroos and joeys as well as bears/pandas/wolves/foxes and their (bear) cubs. Cuckoos are able to lay their eggs in other birds' nests. On her farm, she has a flock of chickens and chicks, a flock of sheeps and lambs, a rafter of turkeys and cattle. Some of her hens aren't laying well (= not producing many eggs). She said the other day, rainwater filled up the container again and we used it to water the houseplants (= a plant that you grow in a pot and keep indoors)/pot plants. Later, I threw her the rope/threw the rope to her who then caught the rope and knotted it around/tied it to the post/tree. The tree she planted had never/finally borne fruit/took a long time to bear fruit. Then we walked/headed diagonally across the field towards/to reach her farmhouse in which she unhooked her bra/necklace and she put on another bra/necklace, reaching behind her back/neck to do up/fasten the hooks/hook. There was a clasp attached to the necklace/bracelet. She threw on/pulled on a half zip jumper/cardigan/cardy with a zip that only goes down from the neck to the chest but it was itchy/scratchy so she ripped it off (= remove a piece of clothing very quickly and carelessly), crumpled it (into a ball) and chucked/slung/tossed it onto the floor. She bought it a long time ago and has only worn it twice and it's already begun to pill (BrE bobble)/already pilled (BrE bobbled)/it's snugged because the last time she wore it, she snugged it on a barbed wire fence surrounding a field in which cows/cattle were grazing/a wire fence/the roses bushes/thorns while she was strolling leisirely in the countryside/thorns snugged it while... and the zip is jammed. Then she put/threw/slipped on/slipped into a hoodie with a diagonal white stripe on the front and brought along her diary which has a diagonal black stripe on the cover. Then we went for a pleasant saunter in the countryside/a rural area/town in Tokyo/a suburb of Tokyo/the suburbs of Tokyo/suburban Tokyo where we started strolling leisurely/saunter pleasantly along a road that runs/is parallel to the river.