Knowledge itself is not the one-dimensional commodity that much excitable writing in the past decade has suggested.

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Gavin is joined on the bill by Olympians James DeGale and Billy Joe Saunders and he is expecting another excitable atmosphere in Northern Ireland.

BBC: Gavin prepared for rough tactics

Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), probably the least excitable action heroine in modern movies, is given a sword by Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), for safekeeping.

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Although there was nothing in the match, there was an excitable atmosphere with both teams well supported by colourful, good-natured fans who waited patiently through a period of heavy rain.

BBC: Ruthless India outclass Ireland

The excitable tension that was sweeping through the 1, 000 or so Dutch fans in the Mound Stand was converted into belief that something remarkable might happen when Peter Borren hit Collingwood into the top tier of the Grandstand.

BBC: Superb Netherlands shock England

But the sight of parties negotiating to share office (or not) after an inconclusive election is common enough in much of Europe: Norwegians and Germans, for example, have been chortling at excitable Brits over the past few days.

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His cabinet antagonist in that dispute was Alexander Haig, but Mr Weinberger also squabbled with Reagan's second, less excitable, secretary of state, George Shultz.

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Makiko Tanaka, the foreign minister at the time, accused Mr Suzuki, an excitable politician from Hokkaido, a northern island, who appears to have great sway with mandarins in the foreign ministry, of blocking the aid groups (supposedly because they had criticised the government) and tampering in ministry matters.

ECONOMIST: More trouble at the foreign ministry