執筆者 Modern English | 2013年09月11日 | Idioms
John: How could you sell my mother’s necklace? It’s been in my family for five generations! Marcia: My back was to the wall! If I hadn’t sold it, we would have lost the house! You say your back is to the wall when you are in a desperate situation. Imagine you have...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年09月04日 | Idioms
“Is dinner ready yet?” “Keep your shirt on, it’ll be done in five minutes.” “Keep your shirt on” means “be patient.” Why would an impatient person take off his shirt? Well, sometimes we see images of people getting very angry and ripping off their shirts, like the...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年08月28日 | Idioms
“This project is way behind schedule. If we don’t catch up, management is going to pull the plug on it.” Pulling the plug on something means ending it. If you pull the electrical plug of a computer or other machine out of the wall socket, it will shut down. If you...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年08月21日 | Idioms
“You’ve only written five pages?” “Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know. These things take time.” Rome is a big, elaborate city. It took a long time to build. Just as it took more than one day to build Rome, it takes time to do a large project well. 「まだ5ページしか書いてないの？」...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年08月07日 | Idioms
“What are you doing?” “Nothing, just killing time.” Killing time is spending time doing nothing. We often have some time to kill while waiting for a class or appointment. You can kill time by reading a book, playing a game or talking, or you can really just do...
