Your dog has another neighborhood dog that she's friends with. You set up a time with your neighbor for the dogs to play together. Your dog was excited about it when you came. You're telling your neighbor about it:
She kind of perked up when I mentioned Hannah's name.
You don't get along well with your father. When you were a child, he was a busy executive. You're talking to a therapist about the problems that you have with him. You tell the therapist:
My father was always too absorbed in his work to pay much attention to me.
attention, busy, parents, relationships, therapy, work (topic) 
You're talking to a classmate about your professor's lectures. Your classmate says that his lectures are boring and hard to pay attention to. You agree, so you say:
Yeah, I start to zone out after about five minutes.
attention, boring, classroom, daydreaming, phrasal verb, school You're going on vacation. You're leaving an e-mail out-of-office message to let people know that you won't answer their e-mails. But you want people to call you if there's an emergency, so you write:
If there are any issues that require immediate attention, I can be reached on my mobile at 646-469-XXXX.
You're from a small town. You're visiting a big city in a foreign country with your fiance, and you're a little intimidated. You're worried about getting robbed or scammed, so you want to try to act like someone who lives in that city. You tell your fiance:
Try not to draw attention to yourself.
You organized a going-away party at a restaurant for your friend who's moving to another area of the country. Everyone has been eating and talking, but you want to say some nice words about your friend to the whole group. To get everyone's attention, you say:
(Clear your throat) Can I have everyone's attention for a moment?
Your roommate wanted you to look at something on YouTube, but you were in the middle of writing something important so you wanted to finish it. Now you're finished writing it, and you want to know what your roommate was trying to show you. You ask:
What was it that you wanted me to look at?
attention, clauses, questions, stative verb Someone asked you a question earlier in the day at work. You were supposed to find the answer, but you forgot because you were doing other things. The person calls you to ask again, and you say:
Sorry, I got sidetracked.
Your wife is angry at you because you aren't paying enough attention to her. You're always focused on work and don't spend time with her. You want to apologize for not paying attention to her. You say:
Sorry, I've kind of been in my own little world lately.
