Jenny, who was for ever falling in and out of love with various house men, sounded sympathetic.
He tried hard to sound sympathetic, to keep him talking, but found it difficult.
With a visible effort to sound sympathetic, he said, "Your friend's probably fine.
"Yeah," I said, trying to sound sympathetic, as though my family were interesting.
He sounded sympathetic and it seemed simplest to say yes.
Truth be told, though, it sounded less sympathetic than synthetic.
"We shall never know," Winston said, trying to sound sympathetic.
'Now that could be your problem,' he said, trying to sound sympathetic.
Go on," he said, doing his best to sound sympathetic.
"It sounds very sympathetic to say this should be available to the public," he said.