Idiom of the Week: Knock Their Socks Off

“I don’t know if I’m ready to play the violin in front of an audience!” “Don’t worry. You’ll knock their socks off!” Knocking someone’s socks off means to impress them by doing a great job. You can also say you “blew them away”. A surprisingly good performance is...

Word of the Week: Smooch

“Mom likes romance movies, but I always cover my eyes during the smooching scenes.” “Smooch” is another word for “kiss”. It’s sort of cute, but it doesn’t sound very romantic. It can be a verb, as above, or a noun, as in “Give him a great big smooch.”...

Picture of the Week: Polar Scene

Can you relate to the animals in this photograph? It must be very cold. But polar bears and arctic foxes are well adapted to cold weather. They probably don’t mind it very much....

Phrase of the Week: In a Pinch

“Let’s get some rice balls at the convenience store. I really prefer hand-made, but these will do in a pinch.” A “pinch” is a difficult situation. We might do something in a pinch that we wouldn’t normally do. 「コンビニでおにぎりを買おう。本当は手作りが好きだけど、イザとなったらこれでもいい。」...

TOEIC Practice Question of the Week

“It was a beautiful winter day. Snow blanket the ground.” Find the mistake. A. beautiful B. winter C. blanket D. ground 「美しい冬の日でした。雪が地面を(毛布のように)覆っていました。」 間違いはどこでしょうか?...