1.   Curling his toes in a vain attempt to frustrate the inhospitable lino, Mungo watched, fascinated.

2.   Fifi was back at the bars and stretching out her hand in a vain attempt to reach the steel tray.

3.   I remembered all my vain attempts to change his mind.

4.   In a vain attempt to maintain her independence, she spent Monday and Tuesday nights at home - alone.

5.   Once, I dived full-length across the court in a vain attempt to retrieve the ball.

6.   Something walking across her grave ... or the forces in heaven laughing at her vain attempts to re-write her future?

7.   The book is a vain attempt to glorify the name of one of the worst dictators in modern history.

8.   The protesters flung handfuls of earth into the trenches in a vain attempt to lift the siege of the West Bank town.

9.   The young mother died in a vain attempt to save her drowning son.

10.   They worked through the night in a vain attempt to finish on schedule.