věřit svým očím

I didn't realize that she'd let her hair grow out. She was quite white. I couldn't believe my eyes. And the nails on her right hand were filthy. I had to clean them.

She lifted the towel that covered the big bowl we use for making bread. There was my baby brother, chewing on his fist. I couldn't believe my eyes. Mama, I didn't see you do that, I said.

But it was to be over a month before Dad turned up again. When I first saw him I couldn't believe my eyes - he was dressed from head to toe in khaki.

(BNC-B)

pokleknout (obřadně)

Sardinia is a land whose past is riddled with bloody brigandry and often inexplicable feuding; a land which at various times in the past has bowed the knee to such untoward arrivals as the Vandals and the Goths (not to mention the supreme midfield general of his day, Napoleon Bonaparte).

Seru completed the Fijian try-count while Scott Pierce clawed one back for the bemused Kiwis. Pierce, having bowed the knee once, decided to do so again after the game when he proposed to girlfriend Jane Harris under the posts.

He transformed himself into an heroic king of England , and the theatrical court bowed the knee. He played Henry V in February 1949 on his beloved BBC radio, the home of the Word and poetry and all that mattered.

kousat si nehty

It was the middle of the week when the Marui Pipeline Masters should have been on and wasn’t that I ran into Pottz in D'Amicos. The north wind was still blowing, Randy Rarick was still biting his nails, and surfers patrolled the Kam Highway , boards poking out of jeeps, strapped to cars, balanced on bicycles, searching in vain for rideable waves.

This fellowship does not of course embrace Rome ; in Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian encounters Giant Pope, old and biting his nails because he can not get at the pilgrims, and mumbling to them.

His mother had been singing with a company playing in a northern seaside town and he had lain on his bed in the boarding house, biting his nails, sunk under a terrible inertia.

držet jazyk za zuby

But Trevor told me it was tactical, so I've got to bite my tongue and accept his explanation.

When I was in prison I used to grip my fingers and bite my tongue and think.

There are a number of things that have happened while I've been here that I have disagreed with, sometimes quite strongly, but I am not a dictator and I have had to bite my tongue.

(BNC-B)

utrhnout se na koho, utrhnout někomu hlavu (přen.)

The biggest concern of the executioner, a man named Billington, was that the now quivering bulk of a fifteen stone woman would snap her head off as the rope took up the slack on the trip through the trapdoor.

The silly idiot is going to shout some sort of stupid abuse at her and she’ll bite his head off!

She was some girl! Not two minutes in his company and she was biting his head off. Now she didn’t want to go to an expensive restaurant in the West End .

krvavý, násilný

The election in Northern Ireland isn't about a penny off income tax or hospital beds. It's about blood and guts and death.

Yeovil became the most successful non-League club in FA Cup history in this blood and guts seven-goal thriller. They were 4-0 up with seven minutes left when the game boiled over with two sendings off, three more goals and the referee escorted from the pitch by police and security guards.

Moving away from the mainly blood and guts stuff, this is a more involved horror thriller which should help expand his market.

(BNC-B)

jablko sváru

Now, my dear souls, don't let us quarrel and make Rose a bone of contention.(thefreedictionary)

The family property was a major bone of contention when their father died. (esl.about.com)

Pets are a new bone of contention in US courts.(Google)

odchod inteligence za lepším výdělkem, odliv mozků

Professor John Ashworth, director of the London School of Economics, agreed with most of the letter's points, but disagreed with the assertion that there had been a brain drain as a result of Government mismanagement.

Both newspapers claim they acted legitimately. Top Oxford scientists join brain drain to US By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

A LEADING British team of chemists has joined the brain drain to the United States . The main problem that Ash foresees is among the younger academic staff. He could not argue, looking at Imperial, that there has been a major brain drain of senior staff.

(BNC-B)

mentálně chorý, šílený

He says his gait was like that of a roe, starting hither and thither, not staying, not stopping; he was brain-sick. One man said his feet and eyes were in constant motion. (BNC-B)

Princess (at the Croydon Warehouse) must win the booby prize, clumsily confounding a few bogus circus tricks with the fall of Communism and life of Leonid Brezhnev’s spoilt daughter Galina in her brainsick old age. (BNC-B)

mozkovna, mozková kapacita; mozek (chytrý člověk)

Can brainpower bolster Berlin’s economy? Kewenig has persuaded the state of Berlin to give him DM 11 million (nearly £3 million) to establish some centres of excellence, and attract more first class researchers.

But with economies in the whole region growing so rapidly, skilled labour is at a premium and countries are doing all they can to hang on to their brainpower.

It is helped, it acknowledges, not only by research and development grants from the Israeli government, but also the current influx of brainpower from the former Soviet Union .

mozkový trust, skupina expertů

Truman played for time by appointing a brains trust of three to advise him.

One summer I was invited to chair a Brains Trust at the Scottish Lawyers’ annual conference at Aviemore

He liked his personal style of government, and his establishment of a Cabinet Secretariat and his own personal advisers or brains trust in the garden suburbs.

hledat nové nápady, inspiraci

Another approach is to use brainstorming. If you need some creative inspiration - which direction to take in your career, which city to move to, how to tackle a relationship problem, where to go on holiday.

The plans for each session are clearly laid out and various learning strategies are suggested: discussion; brainstorming; role play (with additional situation cards); exercises; reflection.

Every employee is encouraged to produce ideas and no suggestion, however small, is rejected without serious consideration. Sections and departments hold brainstorming sessions and posters are displayed to encourage the climate of innovation.

vymývat mozky

One of my main questions arose from the constant accusations that have been made that Moonies (and other new religions) actually brainwash their victims - this being the only explanation that seemed plausible to many of the parents and friends who had observed the often radical changes in behaviour wrought in those who joined the movement.

But that’s no reason to brainwash them into staying at home. Women should be free to choose what suits them - and their families - best.

It is highly inflammatory and implies an aggressive campaign designed to brainwash people.

zlomit srdce komu

It does break my heart when very generous people bring me a bottle that I know means more to their budget than it does to my palate.

She is everything I could ever have wanted. It will break my heart if I had to give my little girl up.

I am your mother and nothing can change that. But if you marry that woman, you will break my heart.

(BNC-B)

srazit někoho na kolena

A woman wants a man to be strong, and then some perversity in her enjoys seeing him brought to his knees - was that it? Certainly she seemed inclined to despise him for giving way to her.

She began by destroying the contents of the studio, slashing all his canvases, painted or not, then tracking the felon himself, and mounting an assault that literally brought him to his knees, in fear for his balls.

That anger carried onto the pitch. In the first exchange, Robinson brought James to his knees with a low cross and then brought Jones down with a late tackle.