1. If it had happened to someone else, we might have found it funny. However, when we found that our spare tire was flat — after we blew a tire that night — it was no laughing .......... . We could have frozen to death if someone hadn't been nice enough to give us a lift home, Brent told his friends.

2. Our boss just decided to .......... on his laurels and be happy that he had a successful career over the past 35 years. His last day is next week, Bill told his wife.

3. He knew that his chess team was due for a loss soon. They won eight games in a row and, according to the law of .......... . they wouldn't be able to keep it going indefinitely.

4. My little brother tells me that you have been bullying him at school. If you so much as lay a .......... on him, you will have to answer to me, Jake told Bert the Bully.

5. You get mad at the littlest things. You asked for a redwood two by four and I got you one. How was I supposed to know that you didn't want any knots in it? You didn't tell me to pick one out with no knots in it. I wouldn't have agreed to pick one up at all if I had known that you were going to lay an .......... about the one I chose, Nina said to Phil.

6. So, I laid .......... all my feelings for you and what do you do? You went and told all of our friends about my personal thoughts. I do not want to talk to you ever again, Lyle said to Jessica.

7. Teenagers are always so intense about friendships. They tell each other that they would die for each other but that is ridiculous. It would have to be a very special friendship for a friend to be willing to .......... down his or her life for someone else, Rafael said to Bart.

8. Your newest soldiers are the sorriest group of wimps I have ever laid .......... on, the Drill Sergeant said to the new recruits.

9. I am going to lay it on the .......... . here. I know you are engaged to my boss but I can't live without you. I love you, Tim told Tammy.

10. I can't believe Mike made this mistake on the shipment. We are going to lose a lot of money when our store doesn't have any inventory to sell our customers. I am going to .......... into him as soon as I see him, the boss vowed to his assistant.