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Here are a few more idiomatic expressions that occur in the text. Try to use them in sentences of your own.
- caught my eye
- laugh ourselves silly
- he’d had enough
- can’t bring myself to
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You have read the expression ‘not to lose heart’ in this text. Now find out the meanings of the following expressions using the word ‘heart’. Use each of them in a sentence of your own.
1. break somebody’s heart
2. close/dear to heart
3. from the (bottom of your) heart
4. have a heart
5. have a heart of stone
6. your heart goes out to somebody
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Colours are used to describe feelings, moods and emotions. Match the following ‘colour expressions’ with a suggested paraphrase.
| (i) | the Monday morning blues | feel embarrassed / angry / ashamed |
| (ii) | go red in the face | feel very sick, as if about to vomit |
| (iii) | look green | sadness or depression after a weekend of fun |
| (iv) | the red carpet | the sign or permission to begin an action |
| (v) | blue-blooded | a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop fighting |
| (vi) | a green belt | in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong |
| (vii) | a blackguard | a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme |
| (viii) | a grey area | land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law |
| (ix) | a white flag | an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear |
| (x) | a blueprint | a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong |
| (xi) | red-handed | a special welcome |
| (xii | the green light | of noble birth or from a royal family |
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Complete the following phrases from the text. For each phrase, can you find at least one other word that would fit into the blank?
(i) tales of _______________
(ii) coastal _______________
(iii) a piece of ______________
(iv) evergreen ______________
(v) _____________ plantations
(vi) _____________bridge
(vii) wild __________________
You may add your own examples to this list.
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1. This play has been translated into English from the Russian original. Are there any expressions or ways of speaking that strike you as more Russian than English? For example, would an adult man be addressed by an older man as my darling or my treasure in an English play?
Read through the play carefully, and find expressions that you think are not used in contemporary English, and contrast these with idiomatic modern English expressions that also occur in the play.
3. Look up the following phrases in a dictionary to find out their meaning, and then use each in a sentence of your own.
(i) You may take it that
(ii) He seems to be coming round
(iii) My foot’s gone to sleep
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Match, the italicised phrases in Column A with the phrase nearest meaning in Column B.
(Hint: First look for the sentence in the text which the phrase in column A occurs.)
| A | B |
| 1. I was not unmindful of the fact. |
(i) had not forgotten : was aware of the fact (ii) was not careful about the fact (iii) forgot or was not aware of the fact |
| 2. When my comrades and I were pushed to our limits |
(i) pushed by the guards to the wall (ii) took more than our share of beatings (iii) felt that we could not endure the suffering any longer |
| 3. To reassure me and keep me going |
(i) make me go on walking (ii) help me continue to live in hope in this very difficult situation (iii) make me remain without complaining |
| 4. The basic and honourable freedoms of… earning my keep… |
(i) earning enough money to live on (ii) keeping what I earned (iii) getting a good salary |
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You know that we can combine sentences using words like and, or, but, yet and then. But sometimes no such word seems appropriate. In such a case was can use a semicolon (;) or a dash (−) to combine two clauses.
She has no interest in music; I doubt she will become a singer like her mother.
The second clause here gives the speaker’s opinion on the first clause.
Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences?
For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings.
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From the table below, make as many correct sentences as you can using would and/or used to, as appropriate. (Hint: First decide whether the words in italics show an action, or a state or situation, in the past.) Then add two or three sentences of your own to it.
|
Emperor Akbar |
would used to |
be found of musical evenings. |
|
Every evening we |
take long walks on the beach |
|
|
Fifty years ago, very few people |
own cars. |
|
|
Till the 1980s, Shanghai |
have very dirty streets. |
|
|
My uncle |
spend his holidays by the sea. |
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______ we afford to neglect children? Think Twice!!
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In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.
| Object | Metaphor | Quality or Feature Compared |
| Cloud | Huge mountains of clouds | The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountains |
| Raindrops | ||
| Hailstones | ||
| Locusts | ||
| An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead | ||
| An ox of a man. |
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The advertisement read, ‘If you smoke, statistically your story ______ end 15% before it should’.
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