Vikings and EGILS SAGA

this subject is recalcitrant both to observation and to experiment. For anyone who has ever struggled to extract a recalcitrant cork from a bottle ... the value of a good corkscrew is a given

a miser who inherited a fortune but lives in a shanty

She married him to spite her parents. Don't let your spite ruin this evening.

He was the only comic able to use old age and senility as assets. He had lived so long he'd been senile for most of his life.

expatiating upon the value of the fabric. the naturalist is known for her willingness to expatiate on any number of issues relating to wildlife and the environment

a small-fry politician. small-fry sports

a burial site where people have been interred for over a thousand years

The building survived the earthquake, but only just.

At that moment, in my haze of vainglory, I could not determine a single personal deficit. But his vaingloriousness got him in the end.

I've tried moving the desk but it won't budge/I can't budge it. I've tried persuading her, but she won't budge.

In the case of King Arthur, legend and truth are often inextricable.

I don't understand. You'll have to elucidate. The reasons for the change in weather conditions have been elucidated by several scientists.

We had the priest sitting at our table, which instilled a little sobriety into the occasion.

Their appalling treatment of their child could only have happened with the connivance of their neighbours. The government connived in the rebels' military buildup.

Has the boss fallen in with your idea...

the word lapp may be sometimes perceived as an offensive one.

Washington's influence can help clinch a deal by this spring.

Her will included small bequests to her family, while most of her fortune went to charity.

The gaily striped awnings of the market stalls made an attractive scene.

These are the midship vents, and these are the main induction valves

a group of people who travel with an important person to help them: The president travels with a large retinue of aides and bodyguards.

Mr Everhart wants Caltech to be the standard-bearer for excellence in scientific research of all kinds. He became known as a standard-bearer for the revival of popular literature in the postwar period

Opposition parties have protested over alleged vote rigging in the election. ballot rigging

he wrote curt precise words. a curt refusal In a curt voice, he ordered the server to bring him a glass of water.

taciturn villagers. I went on speech strike ... remaining defiantly taciturn through a procession of speech therapists and psychotherapists, verbalizing only to the gardener and swearing him to silence.

Clean and dress the wound immediately.

Distribution of the population by age groups is as per the following table. The captain decided on the distribution of every player

Those two months are the beginning of the layabout life which no teacher and no pupil wants.

Those that are still afloat are becoming old, and many of them unseaworthy.

Most managers, politicians and bosses are men - how can women redress the balance (= make the situation fairer and more equal)?

teeming metropolis. There are acres of rolling grassland, teeming with elk and antelope.

Shannon Airport in Ireland was the first European landfall for planes flying from North America. After a long and gruelling flight, they finally made landfall in Florida.

He is a calm man who lives under his wife's thumb.

We have to beach the boat because the storm is coming. The sailor beached his boat

A crab scuttled away under a rock as we passed. The children scuttled off as soon as the headteacher appeared.

a piece of land that sticks out from the coast into the sea

slag heap in Poland

Those pesky kids from next door have let the air out of my car tyres again! Pesky swedes

Grandpa regaled us with tales of his small-town childhood. We have been regaled with the case of the dinner ladies.

She booked a berth on the ferry from Palermo to Naples. The ship berthed at Sydney.

the Thames estuary

A group of people fell into a neck. Your neck was unbelievable. You can't neck here, my daughter is watching you!

Each new paragraph should be indented about two centimetres from the margin. We indented for the engine spares last month.

The bones of your ribs and shoulder blades are flat and smooth

The advertising campaign is aimed principally at women.

The people at the back of the hall jeered the speaker. Critics jeered at his moral stance. "Angry because you don't like the truth?" he jeered. The news that the performance was being cancelled was greeted by boos and jeers from the audience.

$450 million in outstanding debts There are still a couple of problems outstanding.

drink from that horn and get those slanderous verses off.

He was lying under the table in a drunken stupor.

No one has yet been found who is willing to stand (= act as a) surety for Mr Naylor. Analysts doubt whether Ford would have been able to raise such a large amount of debt without some kind of surety.

The father does tell House where the child was interred.

Illegal immigrants found/sought/took sanctuary in a local church. The chapel became a sanctuary for the refugees. If I want some peace and quiet, I take sanctuary in my study

However, even the most credulous sitter balked at the notion of an otherworldly visitor wearing stays. gullible

a staunch friend and ally He gained a reputation as being a staunch defender/supporter of civil rights. staunch Christians. The country's asylum laws were amended to staunch the flow/flood of economic migrants.

They were pulled by a team of dogs

I told her she looked fat, whereupon she threw the entire contents of a saucepan at me and burst into tears.

Biscuits will stay crisp if you keep them in an airtight container.

They took to their heels when they saw the policeman approaching.

The cave tapered to a narrow passageway. Taper your brows slightly at the end. The new tax credit will gradually taper for higher earners.

She literally almost hit the ceiling when the dog lunged at us. He suddenly lunged at her with a broken bottle. He made a lunge for the ball.

I know you don't want to go to the prom but it's too bad, everyone has to.

a craggy coastline. a craggy face craggy features. crag - a high, rough mass of rock that sticks out from the land around it

The man takes this step, and is given certain benefits and certain superannuation benefits, but he really becomes some sort of bondsman.

The police mobile rapid response unit was summonsed to the scene shortly before 10pm. Children were summonsed into school by a bell. He was given/served with a summons to appear in court.

Milligan had a pompous, overbearing father.

A month after being unfairly dismissed, he was reinstated in his job. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976

Her business empire brought her wealth beyond the dreams of avarice (= an extremely large amount of money). avaricious

He spent nine years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit – it was a great miscarriage of justice.

The play has incurred the wrath/anger of both audiences and critics. Please detail any costs/expenses incurred by you in attending the interview. Her statement incurred the wrath of the protestors

I thought I saw someone skulking in the bushes - maybe we should call the police.

at the helm. With Steve Lewis at the helm, we are certain of success.

The river wasn't fordable because of all the recent rainfall. The stream was normally fordable by vehicles or on horseback. Ford: an area in a river or stream that is not deep and can be crossed on foot or in a vehicle

the Kalmar sound

I don’t paint much, I just dabble. He first dabbled in politics when he was at law school. She dabbled with drugs at university.

We worked up a real appetite climbing in the mountains. It's strange, but I can't work up any enthusiasm for going on this trip.

We're a bit hard up at the moment so we're not thinking about holidays. hard-up pensioners. They're hard up for options because of their financial troubles.

The car skidded and plunged headlong over the cliff. In the headlong rush to buy houses, many people got into debt.

He's the scion of a very wealthy newspaper-publishing family.

The court let her off scot-free.

yew-tree. In the middle of the churchyard stands an old yew. Yew, box, or holly are suitable for hedges.

He was the most self-effacing of men - the last thing he would have relished was a eulogy. The song was a eulogy to the joys of travelling.

He's a sly old devil - I wouldn't trust him with my money. You'll find out eventually," said Mary, with a sly smile.

He was punished for his hubris. Hubris brought him down in the end.

We have received a glowing testimonial from her former employer.

The children grappled for the ball. He briefly grappled with the police officer. He grappled the rope on the roof. Check if all the grapples are locked tight

a person who talk too much

If not, "they should pay whatever the Government can gouge out of them." One government soldier was found with his eyes gouged out.

Inevitably, ineluctably there's some caller prating on about the decline in moral standards.

Is he going to jump or is he only bluffing? She bluffed the doorman into thinking that she was a reporter. How did Mina manage to bluff her way into that job?

Everyone has an inviolable right to protection by a fair legal system.

He was brought up in grinding poverty.

These headphones are defective and I want to return them. this text is impossible to reconstruct since it has been preserved in such a defective form

A moment later she heard him unbolt the door and throw it open.

I am shamed for this befouling of your welcoming, worthy brothers.

They were coming to the end of the long and bounteous table. So we are trying this year to stop and enjoy the bounteous harvest

a dearth of new homes in the region. The region is suffering from a dearth of medical specialists. The dearth of food led to the strikes.

She wore a spangled top and a striped skirt.

An old woman was herding the goats. He herded the sheep to the farm. Her concert herded thousands of people.

Abiola pledged his life to the attainment of justice. We will sacrifice ourselves for the attainment of these goals. The attainment of the millennium objectives for developing countries is a priority

A list of 15 applicants has been winnowed down to three. a winnowing process. I winnowed my writings, and still there were too many. the wind winnowing his thin white hair. winnowed the field to four contenders.

He received a royal summons.

The trial abruptly ended when litigants announced they had settled the case out of court.

Because of security implications the officers were tried in secret. They are being tried for murder.

I had the the most expensive dish on the menu - a choice fillet of fish.

The government has been at loggerheads with human rights groups ever since. Otherwise you and my mother would not be at loggerheads!

A hat covered his bald pate. combed his hair across his pate

My hands felt all clammy. It was a hot, clammy day.

A woman died as a result of a doctor's blunder. I've made an embarrassing blunder. I could hear him blundering in the darkness.