Then he gave a formal speech the next morning and, fueled this time by highly caffeinated tea, I again took notes, just to be sure.

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Invariably, they are gesturing a great deal, and, accordingly, moving their arms, body and head, sounding 1, 000 times better than their formal speech a few minutes prior.

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In a formal speech on Capitol Hill Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner sounded conciliatory even as he made it clear higher tax rates would be unacceptable to Republicans who control the House.

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He manages throughout to maintain a fine balance between the formal, and the direct freshness of human speech.

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Shortly after the speech, Mr. Karzai issued a formal decree banning foreign forces from entering Afghan universities and detaining students.

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The Silk report isn't in the Queen's Speech because ministers have yet to agree a formal response, which, MPs were told today, would be published within the next few weeks.

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However, while a certain amount of distrust and wariness is proper when dealing with political speech, it is also true that in certain instances rhetoric and formal policy commitments can matter quite a lot.

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