Phrases and practice

Learn a useful phrase in context, listen to its pronunciation and practise saying it.

• The apparent modesty of this declaration masks a claim to the exclusive right to define the problem.C2 · #2876
• The irony loses its bite here not because the wording has been softened, but because the audience does not know its original context.C2 · #2877
• The question is framed so that any direct answer appears to confirm an assumption that itself needs justification.C2 · #2878
• It is precisely what is left unsaid, rather than the literal content of the final sentence, that makes the ending ambiguous.C2 · #2879
• The appeal to common sense substitutes for an argument here rather than explaining why the proposed solution would be sensible.C2 · #2880
• I am far from attributing bad faith to you; I am merely pointing out that the current wording permits divergent readings.C2 · #2881
• Were we to waive this condition, we would first need to show that another safeguard serves its purpose.C2 · #2882
• Agreement to an exception should not be interpreted as tacit acceptance of the rule from which it departs.C2 · #2883
• We can set aside the dispute over terminology, provided it does not conceal disagreement about the actual scope of the commitment.C2 · #2884
• Such a formulation leaves both parties room for interpretation, but at the cost of predictability in their future cooperation.C2 · #2885
• An explanation may be internally consistent yet offer nothing that would favour it over competing hypotheses.C2 · #2886
• As long as we derive the criterion of validity from the theory being assessed, we risk circular reasoning.C2 · #2887
• I am not claiming that the counterexample refutes the entire conception; it does, however, suffice to challenge the claim that it admits no exceptions.C2 · #2888
• Divergent results may indicate unstable measurement, but they may equally reveal a difference that the adopted model obscures.C2 · #2889
• The more precisely we specify the conditions under which the claim holds, the less striking it will be, but the more faithfully it will reflect our knowledge.C2 · #2890
• Everything adds up on paper, but the devil is in the details that were deemed too trivial to agree on.C2 · #2891
• In trying to fix every failing in one move, we may throw the baby out with the bathwater and lose what worked well.C2 · #2892
• It is a Pyrrhic victory: the decision was imposed, but at the cost of the trust needed to carry it out.C2 · #2893
• I do not intend to serve as a fig leaf for a process over which I have no influence.C2 · #2894
• When recognition becomes an end in itself, it is easy to lose sight of the cause it was meant to serve.C2 · #2895
• The procedural correctness of a decision does not remove the question of whether those bearing its consequences had a real say in shaping it.C2 · #2896
• An institution maintains continuity not by keeping every practice unchanged, but by being able to explain why it changes them.C2 · #2897
• Appointing representatives alone does not guarantee representation if they cannot consult the people they speak for about the position to take.C2 · #2898
• Treating a custom as the self-evident order of things makes it harder to see whom it benefits and whom it systematically overlooks.C2 · #2899
• If responsibility is dispersed across successive levels, even a transparent procedure may leave a participant with no one to address their objections to.C2 · #2900
• The austere form does not so much restrict interpretation as compel the audience to give meaning to what usually remains in the background.C2 · #2976
• The scene's comedy lies in the mismatch between the seriousness of the stated goal and the banality of the means the character uses to pursue it.C2 · #2977
• It is impossible to determine whether the recurring image is the key to the whole work or deliberately leads the reader down a false trail.C2 · #2978
• By leaving the character's motivation unstated, the author shifts the basis of judgement from declarations to the consequences of the character's successive choices.C2 · #2979
• Reading this scene as a reconciliation is possible, but it requires overlooking a gesture that still maintains distance between the characters.C2 · #2980
• The interrogative form does not make this remark neutral: in this context, it serves to express a reproach rather than obtain information.C2 · #2981
• A gentle tone can lessen the sense of pressure without changing the fact that the other person was left no real possibility of refusing.C2 · #2982
• Replacing a reference to the person acting with an impersonal construction shifts attention to the outcome and obscures who made the decision.C2 · #2983
• The reply challenges not the proposal itself but the other speaker's right to treat it as the only one worth discussing.C2 · #2984
• The silence at this point gains significance from the earlier promise of an answer; without it, it would be much harder to interpret.C2 · #2985
• Even if the action produced the desired result, that would not prove that the mechanism behind it had been correctly identified.C2 · #2986
• The ability to construct a convincing causal narrative is not yet grounds for treating it as the explanation best supported by the data.C2 · #2987
• What we did not observe under these conditions may remain possible under others; a conclusion of impossibility would require stronger justification.C2 · #2988
• An explanation invoking chance is justified only insofar as we can specify what would count as random in the model concerned.C2 · #2989
• When the result depends on the order of observations, matching final values alone do not suffice to establish that the two processes unfolded equivalently.C2 · #2990
• We are cutting off the branch we are sitting on if we destroy relationships essential to future cooperation for the sake of short-term savings.C2 · #2991
• By moving the same duties to another column, we are merely going round in circles rather than reducing the actual workload.C2 · #2992
• Pretending the conflict will die down on its own is like burying our heads in the sand when its source remains untouched.C2 · #2993
• This proposal is tailor-made for one group, although it is presented as a solution meeting everyone's needs.C2 · #2994
• Trying to reconcile conflicting promises leaves us between a rock and a hard place until we decide which should take priority.C2 · #2995
• Calling a task independent means little if every decision the learner makes must conform to the instructor's undisclosed template.C2 · #2996
• Assessing the learning process requires distinguishing an error caused by misunderstanding from an attempt that exposes the limits of the previous way of thinking.C2 · #2997
• If the criteria for success remain hidden, praise may reward guessing what is expected rather than indicate genuine mastery of the skill.C2 · #2998
• I would rather leave room for reasoned disagreement than obtain apparent agreement that disappears at the first independent attempt to apply the principle.C2 · #2999
• Ordering material by difficulty has educational value only if difficulty is defined from the learner's perspective rather than solely the author's.C2 · #3000
• With the story concluded, it is easy to see the choice as inevitable, although the participants may then have perceived several equally likely paths.C2 · #3076
• Later knowledge of the consequences changes our assessment of a decision but cannot be attributed without explanation to the person who made it earlier.C2 · #3077
• The narrator speaks of the character's future with a certainty belonging to the time of telling, not to the moment when the events were experienced.C2 · #3078
• The juxtaposition of two events in the account does not establish that they were simultaneous; the author may have paired them because of their similar meanings.C2 · #3079
• By describing an earlier hope in the language of later disappointment, the text blurs the distinction between expectation and knowledge that it went unfulfilled.C2 · #3080
• My support concerns opening discussions, not accepting an outcome whose content remains unknown at this stage.C2 · #3081
• We could regard this solution as acceptable if not only its benefits but also a way to limit its foreseeable costs were demonstrated.C2 · #3082
• Let us not assume that a reservation placed at the end qualifies all the preceding declarations if it is not specified which ones it concerns.C2 · #3083
• I do not rule out an exception, but its justification should concern the features of the case rather than solely the standing of the person requesting it.C2 · #3084
• I would rather leave this issue open than apparently settle it with wording that each party understands differently.C2 · #3085
• Changing the reference point can reverse the assessment of a result even though the result itself has not changed at all.C2 · #3086
• Comparing rates of change requires specifying the time interval because the same increase can imply very different dynamics over different timescales.C2 · #3087
• A ranking based on one property does not, without further assumptions, establish that first place implies superiority in every relevant respect.C2 · #3088
• Transforming data to a common scale makes comparison easier but does not remove differences in what was originally measured.C2 · #3089
• The fact that two descriptions can be summarised with the same word does not mean they capture the same relationships.C2 · #3090
• This freedom is a double-edged sword: it allows action to be adapted to the situation but makes it harder to compare individuals' responsibilities.C2 · #3091
• The Achilles' heel of this plan is not a shortage of ideas but dependence on a single source of information whose reliability has not been checked.C2 · #3092
• We will not cut this Gordian knot merely by changing the name; conflicting commitments will remain conflicting under a new label.C2 · #3093
• A seemingly technical amendment may become a Trojan horse for a change whose consequences participants had no opportunity to discuss.C2 · #3094
• We do not want another burst of enthusiasm that fizzles out, but a way of working that lasts beyond the point when novelty stops being motivating.C2 · #3095
• The shared outcome does not reveal each person's contribution if part of the work involved preventing difficulties that ultimately never arose.C2 · #3096
• Acting in agreement may arise from different motives, so it should not be equated with shared convictions without further discussion.C2 · #3097
• Dividing work according to current skills can perpetuate unequal experience if it gives no one the chance to learn new tasks.C2 · #3098
• The person sustaining cooperation can be less visible than the one presenting the result, although without that person's effort the result might never have emerged.C2 · #3099
• It is worth distinguishing the absence of public opposition from willingness to participate, especially when participation requires effort that was not disclosed earlier.C2 · #3100
• Moving the qualification to a footnote formally retains it in the text, but weakens its influence on the initial reading of the claim.C2 · #3176
• The point is not to preserve every word the speaker used, but to ensure that the abridgement does not attribute to them a certainty they explicitly avoided.C2 · #3177
• Combining two answers into a single paragraph may create the appearance of a causal connection that the speaker did not establish at all.C2 · #3178
• Phrasing the summary in the present tense blurs the distinction between the assessment made at the time and the position the author holds today.C2 · #3179
• The more striking the headline becomes, the more carefully we must check whether it shifts the emphasis from possibility to inevitability.C2 · #3180
• The assessment of the unchosen option remains hypothetical, even though its drawbacks may seem less severe than those we actually experienced.C2 · #3181
• For the comparison to be fair, we cannot assume ideal conditions for the alternative while attributing every obstacle encountered to the plan that was carried out.C2 · #3182
• The failure of one solution does not prove that the other would have succeeded; we still need to assess whether it would have removed the cause of failure without introducing new obstacles.C2 · #3183
• In a retrospective assessment, it is worth separating what could have been foreseen from what became understandable only after the event.C2 · #3184
• A choice made with limited knowledge can be reasonable even if subsequent events make it less advantageous than another option.C2 · #3185
• I accept this condition for the purposes of our joint project, which does not mean that I regard it as an appropriate rule for every similar collaboration.C2 · #3186
• Willingness to withdraw one's own proposal should not be confused with a lack of reasons for putting it forward.C2 · #3187
• If the compromise is to last, each side must understand not only what it gained but also the limits of the other side's commitments.C2 · #3188
• Leaving a detail to be agreed later is reasonable only if neither side already regards it as settled in its own favour.C2 · #3189
• Acknowledging the other side's contribution does not deprive us of the right to identify aspects of the arrangement that still need correction.C2 · #3190
• We are counting our chickens before they hatch if we are already assigning tasks in a team whose membership nobody has confirmed yet.C2 · #3191
• That advice is a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted: it concerns a choice we can no longer change now that registration has closed.C2 · #3192
• We can put a brave face on things in front of the audience, but among ourselves we need an honest assessment of the difficulties.C2 · #3193
• Attachment to the old division of roles means that we still carry the same baggage, even though the team's tasks have changed.C2 · #3194
• Let us not add fuel to the fire with another barbed comment when the dispute is already about the tone of the conversation rather than the proposal itself.C2 · #3195
• By portraying the town solely through the lens of its former glory, we overlook the lives of residents who do not regard it as a museum.C2 · #3196
• A traveller's account says much about their expectations, but does not always let us separate the characteristics of the place from the disappointment they brought with them.C2 · #3197
• Describing the street as untouched by time is evocative, although it obscures the work of the people who preserved its historic appearance.C2 · #3198
• What seems an extraordinary ritual to a visitor may be an ordinary activity for the host, whose meaning they have never had to explain.C2 · #3199
• Ending the story with the protagonist's departure brings their experience to a close, but does not mean that the place described stopped changing.C2 · #3200