When ‘almost’ is good enough

• The house is almost tidy
• My speech was almost perfect
• I almost aced the test
• I ate almost all of my vegetables
• The glass is almost full
• I almost got lost
• I pre-vetted almost all of the candidates
• I possess almost all of the desired qualification and experience for the role
• I read almost all of the new posts in my Google reader
• I almost got 8 hours sleep last night
• I know almost all the lyrics to this song
• I have almost finished (insert any work of Charles Dickens)
• I can almost dance the tango
• I am almost fluent in a second language
• I am almost up to date with my filing
• I almost finished the cryptic crossword
• I almost made a complete fool of myself
• I almost didn’t see the stop sign
• I went almost 6 hours without checking my e-mails