The list of phrases which follows is offered as merely suggestive.  In reading the phrases aloud it is well to think clearly what each one means, and to fit it into a sentence of one’s own making.  This simple exercise, practiced for a few weeks, will produce surprising results by way of increased facility and flexibility of English style.

     It is obviously desirable
     I can well imagine
     Broadly speaking
     An admirable idea
     In a literal sense
     By sheer force of genius
     You can imagine his chagrin
     I hazard a guess
     It challenges belief
     He has an inscrutable face
     Very fertile in resource
     I am loath to believe
     It is essentially undignified
     Example is so contagious
     I am not in her confidence
     Taken in the aggregate
     It is a reproof to shallowness
     There is a misconception here
     I strongly suspect it so
     He was covered with confusion
     It was a just rebuke
     A pleasing instance of this
     It lends dignity to life
     She has a desultory liking for music
     It seems incredible
     A kind of detached ideal
     It blunts the finer sensibilities
     Beyond question or cavil
     A well-founded suspicion
     It has elicited great praise
     They are landmarks in memory
     Superhuman vigor and activity
     A venerable and interesting figure
     It is curious and interesting
     Gives the impression of aloofness
     Perfectly void of offence
     Regard with misgiving
     A stroke of professional luck
     An unscrupulous adventurer
     He spoke with extreme reticence
     Robust common sense
     Deficient in amiability
     Done with characteristic thoroughness
     A vein of philanthropic zeal
     Definite, tangible, and practical
     Too much effusive declamation
     A man of keen ambition
     It gives infinite zest
     Singular qualifications for public life
     They are bitterly hostile
     The despair of the official wire-puller
     Blind and unreasoning opponent
     Ignoble strife for power
     Surrounded by a cohort of admiring friends
     In an imperative voice
     Marked by copiousness and vivacity
     Touched with sombre dignity
     A ridiculous misconception
     Habitual austerity of demeanor
     Ostentation and lavish expenditure
     A person of exquisite tact
     Intolerant of bumptiousness
     The obvious danger of dallying
     This was grossly overstated
     A mass of calumny and exaggeration
     Inimical to religion
     Fraught with peril
     I venture to ask
     Attributed to mental decrepitude
     A strange phenomena
     It argues a blind faith
     Insatiable whirl of excitement
     A substratum of truth