W4. Witness / Walk SB through / Wishful thinking / (can't) wait

1. witness

: If you say that a place, period of time, or person witnessed a particular event or change, you mean that it happened in that place, during that period of time, or while that person was alive. 

 

ex) India has witnessed many political changes in recent years.  
ex) Recent years have witnessed a growing social mobility. 
ex) The retail trade is witnessing a sharp fall in sales. 
ex) South Korea has witnessed astonishing levels of economic growth since the late 20th century. 
ex) We are now witnessing an unprecedented increase in violent crime. 

ex) The recent decades have witnessed a historically unprecedented extension of literacy and other basic education to a majority of people in the developing world. 

cf) The last decade has seen a significant increase in different forms of violence and abuse against journalists and other media actors.

 

 

 

2. walk sb through sth
: to show or tell sb how to do sth by carefully explaining or showing each part separately

ex) She walked me through a demonstration of the software.
ex) He walked me through installing the software.
ex) Let me walk you through some of the tasks you'll be doing while I'm on vacation.

 

 

3. wishful thinking
: if you say that an idea, wish or hope is wishful thinking, you mean that it has failed to come true or is unlikely to come  true.

ex) It is wishful thinking to expect deeper change under his leadership. 
ex) We talked about buying a house someday, but right now it's just wishful thinking. 

 

 

4. can't wait

: to be very excited about something and eager to do or experience it:

 

ex) I can't wait to see you.

ex) I can't wait to see what the next episode will bring. 

ex) That dinner smells delicious, honey. I can't wait. 

ex) I can't wait to move into the new house. 

ex) A: How's that project going? It seems like you've been working on it for a while. 

      B: Yeah, I've been working on it all week. I can't wait to finish it and finally move on to something else. 

ex) I can't wait to get a glimpse of the new Grandeur. I actually have a friend who spotted one on the Ilsan freeway, but he couldn't really see any details.