Marie has the best answer. You could say "He stalked his prey all night." and " He stalked across the room towards the door". The reason you use "the" in the definition is because of the sentence construction. "The act of _______-ing" "a" stride. VS "the act of" striding Hope that helps Matt

Hi Momo, Again, I think Erik and Wozitoya have got the definition of "risk" spot on. I think the reason you would not want to actually use "risk" in this sentence is because it has no dramatic effect. English writing is littered with this type of comparison. " He braved the fires of Hell to reach Paradise" . " The hero faced utter damnation or complete salvation..." As a general rule, you want to compare and contrast things, showing the reader the ultimate risks and rewards of a given path of action. That way you can engage the reader and keep them interested. Nobody wants to hear about "risk", it is much more interesting to hear about "ruin"! :) Another word to describe this method might be "hyperbole". Hope that helps, Matt

"job-hunt" is not correct English, I don't think. No hyphen(-) is needed. As for the definition everyone above me has pretty much nailed it. Hope that helps, Matt

"collateral damage" is a very common phrase. Monica and Domasia both have very good answers on the definitions. I think any native English speaker would almost always use "collateral damage" in a sentence rather than "collective damage". It just sounds more natural. Hope that helps Matt

You can have a "mix" of plants, or music, or emotions. In this sentence a "diverse mix" just means there are a lot of different kinds of wildlife. A similar sentence might be " I have a diverse mix of friends, one is a writer, one is a chemist and one is a policeman." Hope that helps Matt

No problem, good luck! 

 yes, to 86 someone means to "cut them off".   I think it started as a slang word in bars- "He has had to much to drink, he is eighty-sixed."  It is now used to describe stop service to anyone in almost any scenario.  Mainly used in the service industry.
Hope that helps

Matt

I think Cherry covered all of the bases, but I will add my 2 cents. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes by Jane Straus and Mignon English Grammar for Dummies by Geraldine Woods (Paperback - Jul 15, 2001) - Illustrated Good luck Matt