執筆者 Modern English | 2015年03月18日 | Idioms
“I sure am glad I took a day off. It did me a world of good!” “A world of good” is simply a lot of good. It usually refers to something that makes someone feel better. “Counseling did our marriage a world of good.” “You should...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年03月11日 | Idioms
“Wow, that typewriter is pretty old. Is it an antique?” “Yeah, I think it came off the ark.” The ark is the boat that Noah made to survive a big flood in a story in the Bible. The flood was a long, long time ago, so if something was on the ark...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年03月04日 | Idioms
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of him. He’s a household name! He’s on TV all the time.” A “household name” is a person so famous that everyone knows who he or she is. Just like a common brand of soap or candy might be...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年02月25日 | Idioms
“This is a sure-fire plan. There’s no way it could fail!” We don’t really “fire” a plan, but we do fire guns. So imagine you are a soldier, and you have been marching through a swamp or hiding in a forest. Your gun is dirty and it got wet. Will it still fire? It will...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年02月18日 | Idioms
“Want to go out drinking after work?” “I’ll have to ask my wife.” “I see. How is the old ball and chain doing, anyway?” We have an idea that a man loses his freedom when he gets married. So you might occasionally hear his wife referred to as his “ball and chain”, like...
執筆者 Modern English | 2015年02月04日 | Idioms
“My aunts showed us a slideshow of their vacation. It was like Chinese water torture.” We describe something long and painfully boring by comparing it to “Chinese water torture”. Chinese water torture is a method of torture in which the victim is immobilized and water...
