These are what I would use: 1. How exactly did this come about, in the first place? 2. Our lawyers are drawing the agreement up, at the moment. 3. The box gave off a faint fishy smell. 4. I couldn't pin him down on a definite answer. 5. We don't expect that the missing climbers were able to hold out. 6. The smell of drains put me off from eating my breakfast. 7. He's not in on the secret. In some cases, in order to use the words in parentheses ( ), one needs to add other words. These are idioms, or colloquial expressions, so it is understandable that you would find them to be confusing. They don't have literal meaning.