1. Are there any other ways of saying ‘say’ in such sentences as the first one? Are there any ways of substituting ‘say’ for some other verb? (formal one, for example?)
2. As it turned out a few minutes later he hadn’t had to combine the liquid with soap.
I’ll try to clarify this. Imagine the following situation: Someone decided to discover what would happen if he added some soap to a container of liquid. Some time later he realized that it had been a waste of time trying to add soap to the liquid. The context might look this way. Perhaps, it seems stupid enough…
3. Two churches, for example.
5. I thought it would prove so. My British dictionary says that a punishment can be described as sound, so I decided to find out whether it’s right or not. My collocations dictionary says that most frequently used adjectives are severe, harsh, cruel, and heavy.
6. I know it’s bad to repeat words in one sentence but I don’t usually include such ideas on my essays or whatever. That’s why I don’t myself consider it very important. (did I put 'myself' in the right position?)
7. I got it. Will you explain what ‘casual’ means in this context? It seems to me that there are heaps of meanings of this word, aren’t there?
15. Yeah, the last sentence is clumsy here. Depends on the situation. You might have been given this task at the beginning of the month and you haven’t even got down to it yet. So your friend keeps nagging you to get down to the task.