5. A) Comment on the following phraseological units as reflecting various kinds of human activities and pastimes. Explain their figurative meaning.

b) Find synonyms among them.

I. 1. To bait a trap. 2. To be at a loss. 3. To bring to bay. 4. To keep (to hold) someone at bay. 5. To hit below the belt. 6. To have the ball at one's feet. 7. To keep the ball rolling (to keep the ball up, to keep up the ball). 8. To catch (to take) the ball before the bound. 9. To make the best of a bad bargain (job). 10. To be on one's beam-ends (to be laid or thrown on one's beam-ends). 11. To overshoot (to go beyond) the mark. 12. To bark up the wrong tree. 13. To win at a canter (to win hands down). 14. To break ground. 15. To sail under false colours. 16. To come off with flying colours. 17. To lower (to strike) one's colours. 18. To stick to one's colours. 19. To nail one's colours to the mast. 20. To stick (to stand) to one's guns. 21. To put out (to throw out) of gear. 22. To serve before the mast. 23. To bring one's eggs (hogs, goods) to the wrong (bad, fine, pretty) market. 24. To box the compass. 25. To chuck (to throw) up the sponge. 26. To come (to get) down to bedrock. 27. To cut (to slip) the painter. 28. To take the wind out of one's sails. 29. To turn one's coat. 30. To open the ball. 31. To beat about the bush. 32. To have (to hold) the cards (in one's hand or hands).

II. 1. At bay. 2. Before the mast. 3. Between wind and water. 4. Hobson's choice. 5. Lock, stock and barrel. 6. Touch and go. 7. My (our) cake is dough. 8. Preliminary canter. 9. Bag and baggage. 10. A day after (before) the fair.

5. Substitute phraseological units incorporating the names of colours for the italicized words.

1. I'm feeling rather miserable today. 2. He spends all his time on bureaucratic routine. 3. A thing like that happens very rarely. 4. You can talk till you are tired of it but I shan't believe you. 5. The news was a great shock to me. It came quite unexpectedly. 6. I won't believe it unless I see it in writing. 7. You can never believe what he says, he will swear anything if it suits his purpose.

5. Give English equivalents of the proverbs and phraseological units. Explain their meaning and use them in sentences of your own.

1. Видеть (смотреть) сквозь розовые очки (видеть все в розовом свете). 2. Читать между строк. 3. Хвататься за соломинку. 4. Привычка — вторая натура. 5. Платить той же монетой. 6. Вставлять палки в колеса. 7. Играть с огнем. 8. Речь — серебро, молчание — золото. 9. Между двух огней. 10. Положить конец чему-либо. 11. Игра не стоит свеч. 12. Между молотом и наковальней. 13. Куй железо, пока горячо. 14. Не все то золото, что блестит. 15. Лучше поздно, чем никогда. 16. В гостях хорошо, но дома лучше. 17. Пан или пропал. 18. Попасть пальцем в небо. 19. Называть вещи своими именами. 20. Нет дыма без огня.

5. Read the following text. Compile a list of the phraseological units used in it. Classify them according to Academician Vinogradov's classification system for phraseological units.

If you feel under the weather, you don't feel very well, and if you make heavy weather of something, you make it more difficult than it needs to be. Someone with a sunny disposition is always cheerful and happy, but a person with his head in the clouds does not pay much attention to what is going on around him. To have a place in the sun is to enjoy a favourable position, and to go everywhere under the sun is to travel all over the world. Someone who is under a cloud is in disgrace or under suspicion, and a person who is snowed under with work is overwhelmed with it.

When you break the ice, you get to know someone better, but if you cut no ice with someone, you have no effect on them. To keep something on ice or in cold storage is to reserve it for the future, and to skate on thin ice is to be in a dangerous or risky situation. If something is in the wind, it is being secretly planned, and if you have the wind up, you became frightened. To throw caution to the winds is to abandon it and act recklessly, but to see how the wind blows is to find out how people are thinking before you act. If you take the wind out of someone's sails, you gain the advantage over him or her by saying or doing something first. To save something for a rainy day is to put some money aside for when it is needed. To do something come rain or shine is to do it whatever the circumstances. Finally, everyone knows that it never rains but it pours, that problems and difficulties always come together. But every cloud has a silver lining — every misfortune has a good side.