Are these sentences balm for a native speaker's ear or nonsense?

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vectra

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Joined
Jun 16, 2005
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Ukraine
Current Location
Ukraine
Hello,
The question is the same: are these sentences OK?

Is he really that knowledgeable? - Oh, yes. He EMBARKED ON the difficult life=path of entrepreneur way back in 1989.
He had put so much on the line and if something went wrong now, nobody would BAIL Mr Harris OUT.
The money for the goods was coming IN DRIBS AND DRABS, and Mr Harris did his best to KEEP ABREAST OF the competitors.
His company nearly went bankrupt, but he had wisely HEDGED HIS BETS by investing part of his profits in sovereign bonds, and eventually managed to BOUNCE BACK.

I tried to use the following expressions:
to embark on
to bail out
in dribs and drabs
to keep abreast of
to hedge one's bets
to bounce back

Thank you very much in advance.
 
Your use of the expressions is correct.

'Balm to the ear' leaves a lot to be desired.

Rover
 
Hello Rover,

You are absolutely right about balm for a native speaker's ear. I simply translated an expression from Russian which means something pleasant word for word.

Thanks for your prompt reply.
 
:up:

Your sentence is very good. Well done ;-)

Hello Rover,

You are absolutely right about balm for a native speaker's ear. I simply translated an expression from Russian which means something pleasant word for word.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I'm not sure I'd agree with Rover's 'leaves a lot to be desired', although your phrase does sound rather mannered. In Eng we have an idiom quite like the Russian one: Music to my ears - Idiom Definition - UsingEnglish.com. But I don't feel it quite fits in this context: if something is 'music to your ears' it's what you want to hear, rather than something that sounds good.

b
 
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