The word 'phases' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to the stages of a process or cycle. For example, "This year we will go through three distinct phases of our project."
But if people had the tools to place the work in context – knowledge of the different phases of clinical trials, for example, an appreciation of the limits of drug therapy (Scowcroft says it's good, old-fashioned surgery and radiotherapy that cures most cancers), we might be able to understand what those mice are really telling us.
"I know from experience that Joe Schmidt has an ability to mastermind a gameplan by scripting three or four phases.
But, anyway, humans are messy: the attraction, lust and attachment phases get blended together".
"So there are three phases from the moment a point is over until the next point starts.
O'Connor was being diplomatic when he described the atmosphere as "awesome" but he certainly had the home support on the edges of a few seats as he helped launch a series of counterattacks in the closing minutes in a move of 25 phases, but the Northampton defence somehow held out.
I tend to have bad phases and then be OK for a while, but the good periods don't last long.
Planting, cultivating and harvesting are carried out on auspicious days, as dictated by phases of the moon; beauty and artistic harmony are also important, though, so this is not some haphazard vegetable plot but a superbly designed and executed space.
The end result in no way flattered England, who won the important phases of matches when it really mattered but there will be no open top buses or Trafalgar Square celebrations, or even an MBE for Simon Kerrigan, which really would send Shane Warne off the scale.
There lies great comfort in watching water change phases, particularly considering how much of us consists of it.
A key insight was that love has three distinct modes or phases: attraction, lust and attachment.
But anybody writing the history of the 20th century in Britain will regard Thatcher as one of the dominant political personalities, and her era as one of the decisive phases in our history.
