執筆者 Modern English | 2016年10月05日 | Idioms
“That was a close call! I almost hit that cyclist.” “A close call” is an accident, injury, or other bad thing that almost happens but is just barely avoided. It could be very serious: you almost died, but survived through luck. It could be a small thing: you...
執筆者 Modern English | 2016年09月28日 | Idioms
“It’s tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy.” Getting the hang of something is suddenly being able to do something that was difficult before. It’s like an insight that you get from a certain amount of experience, but it usually can’t be explained...
執筆者 Modern English | 2016年09月21日 | Idioms
“But how will you get back home afterward?” “I don’t know. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” We use this phrase to put off a decision or problem until later. When travelling, you don’t need to figure out how you will cross a certain bridge until you actually...
執筆者 Modern English | 2016年09月14日 | Idioms
“The committee criticized his paper, but he took it on the chin.” Imagine being punched in the face. If you stand there and accept the punch, you “take it on the chin”. We use this to mean accepting something bad, such as an attack or misfortune, without...
執筆者 Modern English | 2016年09月07日 | Idioms
“Things looked grim, but the doctors were able to snatch the patient from the jaws of death.” “We were way behind, but somehow we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.” If someone who is about to die is saved, we say they were “snatched from the jaws of...
