1.   A number of women were quite bitter about their futile attempts to get clergy to help.

2.   I jumped up and down in a futile attempt to keep warm.

3.   Kevin made one last futile attempt to persuade Sandra to go with him, then left.

4.   She shut the door in a futile attempt to keep the smell out.

5.   These are the remains of unfortunate wretches driven to kill themselves in a futile attempt to escape the torments of the Castle.

6.   He brought his arm up in a futile attempt to ward off the blow.

7.   Policy strategies which attack the social and economic determinants of ill-health are dismissed as futile attempts at social engineering.

8.   And in that time, two photographers snapped his picture in a shot that would come to symbolize the tragedy and the futile attempts to contain it.

9.   Between futile attempts to secure the equine figurine, Roy struggles to maintain his sanity in a house full of perky Pollyannas.