(1) an ants' nest
(2) an ant colony
(3) ants swarmed up out of the ground and covered her shoes and legs.

(1) a woman of great wisdom
(2) words of wisdom
(3) I question the wisdom of giving a child so much money.

(1) My parents lent me the money. otherwise, I couldn't have afforded the trip.
(2) Shut the window, otherwise it'll get too cold in here.
(3) We're committed to the project. We wouldn't be here otherwise.

(1) Write today's date at the top of the page.
(2) We need to fix a date for the next meeting.
(3) They haven't set a date for the wedding yet.

(1) It's about 10 metres in width .
(2) The terrace runs the full width of the house.
(3) The carpet is available in different widths.

(1) a speech defect
(2) a defect in the glass
(3) There have been several defections from the ruling party.

(1) a political/financial crisis
(2) the government's latest economic crisis
(3) The business is still in crisis but it has survived the worst of the recession.

(1) Valium is usually prescribed to treat anxiety.
(2) He may be able to prescribe you something for that cough.
(3) The prescribed form must be completed and returned to this office.

(1) a fur/leather coat
(2) a long winter coat
(3) to put on/take off your coat

(1) His friend was killed and he knows he is lucky to be alive.
(2) She was lucky enough to be chosen for the team.
(3) You were lucky (that) you spotted the danger in time.

(1) They had evicted their tenants for non-payment of rent.
(2) The decorating was done by a previous tenant.
(3) tenant farmers (= ones who do not own their own farms)

(1) The insect's wings are almost transparent.
(2) a man of transparent honesty
(3) a transparent attempt to buy votes

(1) traditional crafts like basket-weaving
(2) a craft fair/workshop
(3) craft, Design and Technology (= a subject in some British schools)

(1) It wasn't a ghost; it was a real person.
(2) pictures of animals, both real and mythological
(3) In the movies guns kill people instantly, but it's not like that in real life .

(1) ...The sausages are made of coarsely ground pork.
(2) ...ground beef.
(3) The boat finally grounded on a soft, underwater bank.

(1) a bridal veil
(2) Their work is carried out behind a veil of secrecy.
(3) It would be better to draw a veil over what happened next (= not talk about it) .

(1) what do you want?...
(2) what did she tell you, anyway?...
(3) You can imagine what it would be like driving a car into a brick wall at 30 miles an hour...

(1) His last years were clouded by financial worries.
(2) Her eyes clouded with tears.
(3) Steam had clouded the mirror.

(1) Police found fragments of glass near the scene.
(2) The shattered vase lay in fragments on the floor.
(3) I overheard a fragment of their conversation.

(1) I was stung on the arm by a wasp.
(2) Be careful of the nettles─they sting!
(3) I put some antiseptic on the cut and it stung for a moment.

(1) a quiet, shy man
(2) Don't be shy─come and say hello.
(3) She was too shy to ask anyone for help.

(1) He turned to crime when he dropped out of school.
(2) The crime rate is rising.
(3) crime fiction/novels (= stories about crime)

(1) Ex-cavations have revealed roman and Anglo-Saxon remains in the area.
(2) roman vessels used to sail with the tide from Boulogne to Richborough.
(3) He had been ordained as a deacon in the roman Catholic Church.

(1) The program can show us word frequency (= how often words occur in a language) .
(2) the alarming frequency of computer errors
(3) Objects like this turn up at sales with surprising frequency.

(1) She mixed the flour and water to a smooth paste.
(2) wallpaper paste
(3) He pasted the pictures into his scrapbook.

(1) They ghosted up the smooth waters of the river.
(2) My car finally gave up the ghost.
(3) Do you believe in ghosts (= believe that they exist) ?

(1) The central argument is that capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction (= creates the forces that destroy it) .
(2) a tidal wave bringing death and destruction in its wake
(3) weapons of mass destruction

(1) My brother is much heavier than me.
(2) She was struggling with a heavy suitcase.
(3) They had employed heavies to evict shop squatters from neighbouring sites.

(1) Why do you dislike him so much?
(2) He disliked it when she behaved badly in front of his mother.
(3) I dislike being away from my family.

(1) She was taken to hospital after her collapse at work.
(2) the collapse of share prices/the dollar/the market
(3) a state of mental/nervous collapse

(1) moral philosophy
(2) the philosophy of science
(3) a professor of philosophy

(1) boundary changes/disputes
(2) The fence marks the boundary between my property and hers.
(3) Scientists continue to push back the boundaries of human knowledge.

(1) He smiled suddenly, exposing a set of amazingly white teeth.
(2) Miles of sand are exposed at low tide.
(3) My job as a journalist is to expose the truth.

(1) an exhibition of work by contemporary British artists
(2) a graphic artist
(3) a make-up artist

(1) an intensive language course
(2) two weeks of intensive training
(3) intensive diplomatic negotiations

(1) (figurative)Salary is a function of age and experience.
(2) Despite the power cuts, the hospital continued to function normally.
(3) We now have a functioning shower.

(1) They said you particularly wanted to talk to me. Why was that?...
(2) 'Hey, is there anything the matter with my sisters?' — 'Is that why you're phoning?'...
(3) The Commissioners get between £50,000 and 60,000 a year in various allowances. But that amount can soar to 90,000 a year...

(1) They're sending an engineer to fix the phone.
(2) a flight engineer
(3) the chief engineer on a cruise liner

(1) The theatre was evacuated when rain poured through the roof at the Liverpool Playhouse...
(2) Go straight through that door under the EXIT sign...
(3) Use a proper fish knife and fork if possible as they are designed to cut through the flesh but not the bones...

(1) It is very complicated to model transformer in transient calculation.
(2) Open tender for purchasing power transformer.
(3) Its moving iron core transformer structure is most widely used.