The B2 phrases we'll be studying are:
1. Bizarre situation
Definition: A very strange or unusual situation that is difficult to understand or explain.
When I arrived at work, everyone was wearing costumes, and I had no idea what was happening. It was a bizarre situation.
We were having dinner when a man suddenly walked into the restaurant with a chicken under his arm. It was a bizarre situation.
I lost my phone on the train, and then a stranger called me to say he had found it in his garden. It was a bizarre situation.
2. Fierce
Definition: Very strong, violent, or determined.
The two players had a fierce argument after one of them accused the other of cheating.
There is fierce competition for jobs in the city, so you need good qualifications to get one.
The dog gave me a fierce look when I tried to take its food away.
3. Uneasy
Definition: Worried or uncomfortable because you feel that something is not right.
I felt uneasy walking home alone as a girl had been attacked in that area only last week.
I started to feel uneasy when my friend didn't answer his phone and hadn't come home by midnight.
She felt uneasy about leaving her children with the new babysitter because she didn't know him very well.
4. Desperate
Definition: Having a very strong need or desire for something, especially because you are in a difficult situation.
After walking for three hours in the hot sun without any water, we were desperate for a drink.
He was desperate to find a job because he had been unemployed for almost six months.
I was desperate to get some sleep after working all night and then looking after the children all morning.
5. Unbearable
Definition: So unpleasant or difficult that you cannot accept or deal with it.
The heat in the office became unbearable because the air conditioning had stopped working.
The noise from our neighbours was unbearable, so we decided to ask them to turn the music down.
After several hours of waiting in the hospital, the pain became unbearable, and I asked the nurse for help.
6. Rage
Definition: A very strong feeling of anger that is difficult to control.
He was shaking with rage after discovering that someone had damaged his car and driven away.
She screamed in rage when she found out that her colleague had taken credit for her work.
He couldn't control his rage when the referee gave the other team a penalty in the final minutes of the match.
7. Deal with somebody
Definition: To take action to solve a problem with someone or manage someone who is causing difficulties.
I don't know how to deal with my neighbour because he keeps playing loud music late at night.
As a manager, she has to deal with difficult customers who sometimes become angry about small problems.
If your brother keeps causing problems at school, you'll have to deal with him before it gets worse.
I was not alone. The room was the same, remaining completely unchanged in any way since the initial moment I came into it. I could see along the bare floor, in the brilliant moonlight, my own footsteps marked where I had walked through the thick layer of dust. The atmosphere of the place was one of absolute silence, yet my anxiety was growing. In the moonlight opposite me stood three young women, who were elegant ladies by their dress and respectable manner.
I initially thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them. For, even though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow on the floor. This bizarre situation was just not logical. Then, they came close to me, observed me for some time, and then silently whispered together. Two of the women were dark, and had high, sharp noses, much like the Count, with fierce eyes that seemed to be virtually red in contrast with the pale yellow moon.
The other woman was fair, as pale as can be, with a mass of golden hair and pale blue eyes. I seemed somehow to know her face, and to connect it in my mind with some fear, but I could not recall at that moment how or where I had seen her. All three had bright white teeth that shone like pearls* against the red of their full lips.
There was something about their appearance that made me uneasy, some deep desire and at the same time some deadly terror. I felt in my heart a desperate need to kiss those red lips. It is not good to note down this confession; some day it might meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth. My mind was confused, caught in a complex dilemma between loyalty and this unnatural attraction.
They whispered together again, and then they all three laughed—such a musical laugh, but hard at the same time; too hard for the softness of human lips. It was like some unbearable music of a supernatural instrument.
One said to the fair girl: ‘Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right to begin'. The other added: ‘He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all'.
I lay quietly, looking out under my eyelashes suffering in delightful expectation. The fair girl came forward and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, and it sent the same sensation through the nerves as her voice did, yet there was something offensive about it, as one smells in blood.
I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me. She actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the wet shining on her lips and on the red tongue as it moved over the sharp, white teeth. Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below my mouth and chin and seemed about to fasten on my throat. Then she paused, and I could hear the sound of her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips, and could feel the hot breath on my neck. I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the sensitive skin of my throat, and two, sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes and waited with a beating heart.
But at that instant, another sensation went through me as quick as lightning. I was conscious of the presence of the Count*. He was furious. As my eyes opened I saw his strong hand grip the neck of the fair woman and with a giant's power pull it back, the blue eyes transformed with anger, the white teeth biting the air with rage, and the fair cheeks red with passion.
The Count's eyes were positively red and angry. His face was deadly pale, and the lines of it were hard like wires; the thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a bar of white-hot metal. With a fierce movement of his arm, he threw the woman across the floor.
In a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper seemed to cut through the air and then ring round the room he said: 'How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you look at him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Be careful what you do, or you'll have to deal with me'.
The fair girl turned to answer him: 'You yourself never loved; you never love!'.
On this the other women joined in, and a hard, cruel laughter rang through the room. Then the Count turned, after looking at my face, and said in a soft whisper: 'Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him as your wish. Now go! go! I must wake him, for there is work to be done'.
'Are we to have nothing tonight?' said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within it.
For an answer he nodded his head. One of the women jumped forwards and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a low cry, as of a child. The women closed round, while I was in horror; but as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag. There was no door near them, and they could not have passed me without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade into the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see outside their ghostlike forms for a moment before they faded away completely.
Then, I sank down unconscious.
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