Section 1: 💭 Lexis in extended context

It had been one of those mornings where everything seemed to go off at once. First, Maria’s alarm clock failed togo off at 6:30 AM – it must have malfunctioned overnight. When she finally woke up at 7:45, she rushed to the kitchen only to discover that the milk had gone off. The sour smell made her wrinkle her nose as she quickly disposed of the spoiled liquid.’Great, now I’ll be late for the team meeting,’ she muttered, grabbing her phone to message her colleague Alex.Just then, her phone buzzed with notifications. Their usually calm team member James was going off on social media about yesterday’s project deadline changes. His lengthy rant covered multiple posts, each message more heated than the last.’I’ve never seen James explode like this,’ Alex messaged back. ‘The pressure must have finally triggered him.’

As Maria hurried to leave, her neighbor’s car alarm started to go off, its piercing sound echoing through the parking lot. ‘Perfect timing,’ she thought sarcastically. At least it would evaporate any remaining drowsiness. Later that day, during the rescheduled team meeting, their manager addressed the morning’s events. ‘I understand tensions are high,’ she said diplomatically. ‘But we can’t let things deteriorate like this. When one person goes off, it affects the whole team dynamic. Let’s focus on solutions before the situation gets any worse’. Maria nodded, thinking about how a single morning had showcased so many ways things could ‘go off’ – from alarms failing to activate, to food starting to spoil, to people losing their cool. Sometimes it felt like Murphy’s Law was working overtime.