XI) Types of idioms. Proverbs.

Exercises

1. How many idioms of the type verb + object can you find in this text? Underline each one. Use a dictionary if necessary, especially a good dictionary of idioms.

I always try to make the most of any opportunity to make new friends, such as a party or a social event. But it’s not always easy to break the ice, and when yu don’t know someone, it’s so easy to put your foot in it by saying something insensitive or something which unexpectedly rubs someone up the wrong way. But if you keep an eye on what you say, play it by ear and just try to act naturally, it can make all the difference and you may find you stand a good chance of making anew acquaintance or even a good friend.

Now match each of the idioms you found above with their meanings from this list.

be watchful/careful about something say or do something socially embarrassing

create a relaxed social atmosphere have a very positive effect

get the maximum benefit from a situation there is a strong possibility

irritates someone don't plan in advance, just see how things go

2. Complete these idioms using the following prepositions: in, under, on, out, in, from, at. Use a dictionary if necessary.

1 We were talking ..cross purposes. I was talking about the exams, and you thought I meant the course as a whole.

2. I was a bit the weather last week, but I feel much better now.

3. I'm afraid we'll have to start………. scratch again. This system just isn't working.

4. We were kept the dark for weeks before anyone told us the truth.

5. Where we live now, we have great shops and everything we need……. our doorstep.

6. They were killed ..cold blood by rebel soldiers.

7One day, of the blue, he left his job and emigrated to Australia.

3. Rewrite each of these sentences using one of the idioms from exercise 2.

1. I hate being uninformed about things at work.

2. The terrorists had no mercy and killed all the hostages.

3. The mountains and ski slopes are just a few miles away; we're so lucky.

4. Without any warning she received a letter from her long-lost brother.

5. I often find Jane and 1 have misunderstandings.

1. It looks as if they'll have to start all over again. 7 Keith's not looking too well these days, is he?

4. 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.

English has many colloquial expressions to do with parts of the human body — from head to toe! Here are some of the commonest ones.

To keep your head is to remain calm, but to lose it is to panic and do something foolish. If something is above or over your head, it is too difficult for you to un­derstand. An egghead is an intellectual, and someone who has their head screwed on, is very sensible.

If you split hairs, you are very pedantic, but if you don't turn a hair you are very calm. To pay through the nose is to pay a very high price for something, but if you turn up your nose at some­thing you despise it. If you are all ears, you listen very attentively, and if you keep your ear to the ground, you listen and watch out for signs of future events. To see eye to eye with someone is to agree with them, and if you don't bat an eyelid, you show no surprise or ex­citement. If you are down in the mouth, you're rather depressed. A stiff upper lip is the traditionally British quality of not showing any emotions in times of trou­ble.

To have your tongue in your cheek is to say one thing and mean something else. To have a sweet tooth is to have a taste for sweet food, and to do something by the skin of your teeth is to just manage to do it.

To stick your neck out is to do something risky or dangerous, and to keep someone at arm's length is to avoid getting too friendly with them. To be highhand­ed is to behave in a superior fashion, but to lend some­one a hand is to help them. If you have a finger in every pie, you are involved in a lot of different projects, and if you have green fingers, you are very good at gardening. To be all fingers and thumbs is to be very clumsy, and to be under someone's thumb is to be under their influence. If you pull someone's leg, you tease them, and if you haven't a leg to stand on, you have no reason or justification for what you do. To put your foot down is to insist on something and to fall on your feet is to be very fortunate. To find your feet is to become used to a new situation, but to get cold feet is to become frightened or nervous about something. If you put your foot in it, you say or do something to up-set or annoy someone else, and if you tread on some­one's toes you do the same without meaning to.

5. Read the following proverbs. Give their Russian equivalents or explain their meanings.

1. A bargain is a bargain.

2. A cat in gloves catches no mice.

3. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

4. A good beginning is half the battle.

5. A new broom sweeps clean.

6. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.

7. It never rains but it pours.

8. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

9. Make hay while the sun shines.

6. Give the English equivalents for the following Russian proverbs.

Нет худа без добра. В гостях хорошо, а дома лучше. С глаз долой, из сердца вон. Дуракам закон не писан. Он пороху не выдумает. Слезами горю не поможешь. Взялся за гуж, не говори, что не дюж.

Theoretical grammar

I) General properties of a noun.

Exercises

1. Give the plural of the following nouns

Face, portfolio, swine, house, tomato, hearth, mother-in-law, basis, clergyman, ox, cry, key, fox, downfall, looker-on, rock, bush, enemy, leaf, roof, genius, hero, bunch, sheep, ship, criterion, youth, journey, penknife, man-of-war, loss, datum, goose, deer, pie, Eng­lishwoman, wolf, mouse, formula, bath, volcano, possibility, forget-me-not, foot, handkerchief, thief, crisis stepdaughter, birth, echo, finger-tip, court martial, joy, mischief-maker, extremity, spy, lie.

2. Use the appropriate form of the verb.

1. "There money in my pocket," I said to the porter. (is, are)(Hemingway) 2. I know my hair... beautiful, everybody says so.(is, are) (Hardy) The works_____his country, his home, his reason for being. (was, were) (Heym) These white swine _____ not live. (does, do) (Sabatini) b. Means _____ easily found. (was, were) (Thackeray) 6. ...this watch ______ a special favourite with Mr. Pickwick, having been carried about... for a greater number of years than we feel called upon to state, at present. (was, were) (Dickens) 7. "Good," I said. "No one shall tell me again that fish _____ no sense with them." (has, have) (Llewellyn) 8. The deer ______ ravaging the man's fields. (was, were) (Twain) 9. Money______so scarce that it could fairly be said not to exist at all. (was, were) (Dreiser) 10. I was here before the gates ________ opened, but I was afraid to come straight to you. (was, were) (Dickens) 11. The papers________ dull,the news_______ local and stale, and the war news_____ - all old. (was, were) (Hemingway) 12. At Capracotta, he had told me, there _______ trout in the stream below the town. (was, were) (Hemingway) 13. The sugar-tongs _______ too wide for one of her hands, and she had to use both in wielding them. (was, were) (Ch. Bronte) 14. Her hair _____ loose and half-falling, and she wore a nurse's dress. (was, were) (Hemingway) 15. And the baggage ______ apparatus and appliances. (contain, contains) (Wells)

16. The china ______ good, of a delicate pattern. (was, were) (Dreiser) 17. The nurse's wages ____ good... (was, were) (Collins)

3. Explain the use of the genitive case.

1.For four months, since in the canteen she saw Jon's tired smile, he had been one long thought in her mind. (Galsworthy) 2. Agnes was at her wit's-end. (Lindsay) 3. Since his illness, however, he had reluc­tantly abandoned this attempt to get twenty-four hours' work out of each day. (Murdoch) 4. ...the Radicals' real supporters were the urban classes. (Galsworthy) 5. To Elizabeth it seemed that the lines with which fear had falsely aged his face were smoothed away, and it was a boy's face which watched her with a boy's enthusiasm. (Greene) 6. For his honor's sake Tom has got to commit suicide. (Saroyan) 7. They were to leave the house without an instant's delay and go at once to the river's edge and go aboard a steamer that would be waiting there for them. (Buck) 8. And he lifted his strange lowering eyes to Derek's. (Galsworthy) 9. I was encouraged when, after Roger had pro­posed the guest of honor's health, Lufkin got up to reply. (Snow)10. "Where are the children?" "I sent them to mother's. (Cronin)11. Philip heard a man's voice talking quickly, but soothingly, over the phone. (I. Shaw) 12. Presently Rex was on his two miles' walk to Offendene. (Eliot) 13. That early morning he had already done a good two hours' work. (Galsworthy) 14. Bowen sat on the veranda of Buck- master's house. (Amis) 15. Crime is the product of a country's social order. (Cronin) 16. I spotted the bride's father's uncle's silk hat on the seat of a straight chair across the room. (Salinger) 17. I spent Christmas at my aunt Emily's. (Braine) 18. We took some bread and cheese with us and got some goat's milk up there on the pasture. (Voynich) 19. He was still thinking of next morning's papers. (Snow) 20. Why, for God's sake, why must we go through all this hell? (Saroyan) 21. A man stepped out from a tobacconist's and waved to them, and the car slid to the kerb and stopped. (Greene) 22. A woman's love is not worth anything until it has been cleaned of all romanticism. (Murdoch) 23. Her skin was as dry as a child's with fever. (Greene)

II) Simple sentence.

Exercises