THE SUM OF ITS PARTS I

Fill in the blanks in the sentences below so that the first two words combine to make the third word.

Example:
The prime minister _ _ _  the meeting even though the _ _ _ _ was the _ _ _ _ _ _ _  official.
The prime minister RAN the meeting, even though the KING was the RANKING official.`

1. If she doesn't reduce the amount of _ _ _ in _ _ _ diet, she'll start to look like her overweight _ _ _ _ _ _.

2. If every _ _ _ would act his _ _ _ , most disagreements would be a lot easier to _ _ _ _ _ _ .

3. It's _ _ _ the rain but the _ _ _ that caused the weather alert _ _ _ _ _ _.

4. A cat's _ _ _ will never be a mouse's _ _ _ _ , no matter how _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the mouse is about it.

5. She told _ _ and we told _ _ _ that being an _ _ _ _ _ was easy - just showing people to their seats.

6. Even though he was a _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ , we were all relieved when he came to the _ _ _ _ _ _ after the huge wave swallowed him up.

7. She noticed an _ _ _ on the _ _ _ of her dress while singing the national _ _ _ _ _ _ .

8. There's _ / _ _ _ _ in our group now that he's gone, and we try to _ _ _ _ _ talking about him.

9. The tennis player's _ _ _ sat at the _ _ _ and composed
a _ _ _ _ _ _ .

10. The rock _ _ _ _ _ _ concealed a _ _ _ , but it would take a clever _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to get it out.

Answers:

1. fat/her - father

2. man/age - manage

3. not/ice - notice

4. ear/nest - earnest

5. us/her - usher

6. surf/ace - surface

7. ant/hem - anthem

8. a/void - avoid

9. son/net - sonnet

10. strata/gem - stratagem