heat haze; shimmer of hot air
interval; period of time; among; between; good opportunity; chance
Buddhist priest; bonze; close-cropped hair; crew cut; boy; sonny
hobby; pastime; tastes; preference; liking
road; path; route; way; distance; journey; road (e.g. to victory)
thinly; slightly; vaguely; a little
noisy; loud; annoying; troublesome; fussy; finicky
desperation; struggle to the death
as a matter of fact; really; truly; entirely; completely; wholly
to grasp at straws; to resort to desperate measures
to take hold of; to possess; to haunt
useful thing; usable article
may; might; perhaps; may be; possibly
to become known; to come to light; to be known; to be understood; to clearly not amount to much; to be insignificant
with a slap; with a pop; without batting an eyelid; generously; cutesy suffix applied to names
specialist; expert; professional; authority; pundit
substitute; replacement; stand-in; proxy; compensation; exchange
to hit; to expose; to apply (e.g. patch); to put on; to allot; to call on someone (e.g. in class); to guess (an answer)
complete change; about-face
to grant; to give; to confer; to teach; to instruct; to impart (knowledge)
to see; to witness; to observe; to catch sight of; to get a glimpse of; to encounter
life; lifetime; career; for life; all one's life; throughout one's life
(in the) neighbourhood; neighborhood; around; about; for instance; say
feather; plume; wing; shuttlecock (in badminton)
to rest; to suspend; to give relief
waterfowl; water bird; shorebird
simultaneously; all at once; in unison
to flap (wings); to spread one's wings; to go out into the world
to jump up; to start up; to leap to one's feet; to fly away; to take off
to have one's hair stand on end
unable to do (as one wishes); able to do only with great effort; almost impossible to do; beyond one's control; not always turning out as one wishes; not going the way one wants it to
to refuse; to reject; to decline; to prevent (from doing); to deny (e.g. access); to block
to have an audience (with); to have an interview (with); to meet; to see
(apparently) that's what it's like, isn't it
convulsion; cramp; spasm; tic; twitch; fit
(facial) expression (esp. fierce, fearless, sinister, etc.); look
anywhere; for all time; through thick and thin; come hell or high water; persistently; stubbornly