pick and choose: to carefully select only the things you want and reject the rest pažljivo birati, probrati samo one stvari, opcije ili uvjete koji vam najviše odgovaraju, često odbacujući ostale At a buffet, you can pick and choose whatever you want and leave the rest. “You can’t pick and choose which rules to follow,” the coach said. “Everyone does the full warm-up.” When you are young, you can’t always pick and choose your job. You take what you can get.
take a cut: to take a share of the money from a deal, usually as a fee uzeti svoj dio (kolača), udio u zaradi ili postotak od nečega Real estate agents usually take a cut of about 5% when they sell your house. My manager books all my concerts, but she takes a cut of everything I earn. The market lets anyone sell food there, as long as the owners take a cut of the profit.
take it upon oneself: to decide to do something yourself, without being asked or told to preuzeti na sebe, uzeti si u zadatak When our boss was out sick, Maria took it upon herself to answer his emails and keep the team on track. Nobody asked him to, but my neighbor took it upon himself to clear the snow from the whole street. The new intern took it upon herself to reorganize the files, and now no one can find anything.
turn (someone) in: to report someone to the police prijaviti (nekoga) policiji, odati (nekoga) After three weeks on the run, the suspect’s own brother turned him in. She knew her coworker was stealing from the office, but she could not decide whether to turn him in. The thief eventually turned himself in after his face appeared on the news.
put in the work: to spend serious time and effort training, practicing, or preparing to achieve something uložiti trud, uložiti napor, posvetiti se radu, odraditi posao Anyone can dream about running a marathon, but you have to put in the work every morning to actually finish one. She didn’t get promoted because of luck. She put in the work for five years, and finally people noticed. He talks a lot about wanting to start a business, but he never puts in the work to actually do it.
a race against time: a situation where you must move or work very fast to finish something before it is too late utrka s vremenom The doctors are in a race against time to find a cure for the new illness. We were in a race against time to finish the project before the office closed. The firefighters are in a race against time to save the forest before the wind changes.
be struck by (something): to find something very interesting, surprising, or impressive when you first notice or think about it biti zadivljen, impresioniran, pogođen, iznenađen nečim He was struck by how kind the strangers were when he lost his wallet in the city. When I first stepped off the plane in the desert, I was struck by the intense heat. It felt like walking into a warm oven. As I looked at the old family photo, I was struck by how much my son looks like my grandfather. They have the exact same eyes.
fall by the wayside: to stop doing something, usually because it is difficult or other things are more important odustati, povlačiti se; pasti u drugi plan Many New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside after only a few weeks. His guitar practice fell by the wayside when he started a new job. My morning walks fell by the wayside once the weather got cold.
in the wrong hands: when someone dangerous or careless has control of something they could misuse u pogrešnim (krivim) rukama Genetic research can cure diseases, but in the wrong hands it could be used to create harmful experiments. Face-recognition software could be helpful for catching criminals, but in the wrong hands it could encourage the loss of our privacy and freedom. Nuclear technology can provide clean electricity, but in the wrong hands it can turn into a weapon.
go out of one’s way (to do something): to make a special effort to do something, especially to help someone previše se gnjaviti; mučiti; potruditi se She went out of her way to bring me soup when I was sick. It was not something she had to do. The shop owner went out of his way to find the exact book I needed. He went out of his way to make me feel welcome in his home.
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