Idioms are a very important part of the English language: you are told that if you want to go far (succeed) you should pull your socks up (make a serious effort to improve your behaviour, the quality of your work, etc.) and use your grey matter (brain).1 Learning and translating idioms have always been very difficult for foreign language learners. The present paper explores some of the reasons why English idiomatic expressions are difficult to learn and translate. It is not the aim of this paper to attempt a comprehensive survey of the vast amount of material that has appeared on idioms in Adams and Kuder (1984), Alexander (1984), Dixon (1983), Kirkpatrick (2001), Langlotz (2006), McCarthy and O'Dell (2002), and Wray (2002), among others. The paper concentrates on idioms as a learning-translation problem; it makes no claim to be comprehensive or academically rigorous. Leech (1989) defines an idiom as follows: “An idiom is a group of two or more words which we have to treat as a unit in learning a language. We cannot arrive at the meaning of the idiom just by adding together the meanings of the words inside it. E.g.John and Mary usedto be hardup (='They had very little money'.)”(P.186) To be more exact, an idiom is a sequence of words which is semantically and syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit. From a semantic point of view, the meanings of the individual words cannot be summed to produce the meanings of the idiomatic expression as a whole. Thus, fly off the handle, which means lose one's temper, cannot be understood in terms of the meanings of fly, off, or handle. The idiom phrase hot air, which means empty or boastful talk, is neither hot nor air; with hot air we are dealing with a set phrase where the meaning cannot be suggested on the basis of the two constituent words. The idiomatic meaning of spill the beans in So who spilt the beans (=told the secret) about her affair with David? has nothing to do with beans or with spilling in its literal sense. The foreign-language learner is left trying to figure out where and how the beans were spilt. From a syntactic viewpoint, the constituent parts of an idiom often do not permit the usual variability they display in other contexts. The point to be emphasized here is this: most idioms do not lend themselves easily to manipulation by speakers and writers; they are invariable and must be learned as wholes, but concord ofnumber, person and gender in the idiom phrase is still necessary, i.e. the verbs must be put into the correct form, and pronouns must agree with their antecedents: I don't give a hoot for her opinion! 2 • She doesn't give a hoot for my opinion! etc.)║He won, but only by the skin of his teeth2• She won, but only by the skin of her teeth• Iwon, but only by the skin ofmy teeth,I had to run for the train, and caught it by the skin of myteeth, etc.║He kept pullingmy arm, throwing me off my balance 2 • She kept pulling his arm, throwing him off his balance • We kept pullingher arm, throwingher offher balance, etc.2 The present paper is divided into five parts, as follows: Part I: An Overview; PART II: Learner’s Difficulties with Idioms; PART III: Some Pedagogical recommendations and Suggestions about Idioms; Part IV: Activities to Practice Idiomatic Expressions; Part V: Summary and Conclusion.
In this study, pure SnO2 Nanoparticles doped with Cu were synthesized by a chemical precipitation method. Using SnCl2.2H2O, CuCl2.2H2O as raw materials, the materials were annealed at 550°C for 3 hours in order to improve crystallization. The XRD results showed that the samples crystallized in the tetragonal rutile type SnO2 stage. As the average SnO2 crystal size is pure 9nm and varies with the change of Cu doping (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%),( 8.35, 8.36, 8.67, 9 ,7, 8.86)nm respectively an increase in crystal size to 2.5% decreases at this rate and that the crystal of SnO2 does not change with the introduction of Cu, and S
... Show MoreIn this work, Kinetic Phosphorescence Analyzer (KPA) has been used to measure the concentrations of uranium (UC) and Amorphous crystals (AMO) in urine samples of breast cancer patients in Baghdad. Additionally, a relation between UC and AMO with respect to patient's age has been deduced and studied.
Forty one urine samples of patients and five for healthy were taken from females lived in different residential area of Baghdad. The measured maximum UC value for urine samples of patients was 2.35 ± 0.053, the minimum value was 0.86 ± 0.034 μg/L, and an overall average was 1.6 ± 0.027 μg/L while the average UC for healthy females was 1.03 ± 0.020 μg/L.
From these results, AMO concentrations were found for all breast cancer patie
Centric study on the interest of the Directorate General of Training and Development / Ministry of Electricity to consolidate the concept of process and enhancement of knowledge in the areas of organizational change، it reached a sample of the study (44) people who are highly heads of departments، technicians and administrators in different sections of the Directorate and by using the correlation coefficient (Spearman) & coefficient of simple regression been tested correlations between variables and the impact of the study، as has been reached to integrate the role of cognitive processes with the areas of organizational change and relationships that were significant at the level of overall dimensions and subsidiary organs.
... Show MoreVocational education is the basis of contemporary educational movement that aims at satisfying human needs. Societies can develop their human resources via setting programs for the working class as an aspect of the comprehensive national development. Vocational education is the main source of technical cadres the Iraqi labor market requires of the vocational preparatory schools to provide after three years of schooling.
The vocational schools of the governorate of Basra have a number of problems that lead to the lack of proficiency of their graduates. This study is an attempt to identify these problems or obstacles
... Show MoreBackground: Despite the importance of vaccines in preventing COVID-19, the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines is lower among RA patients than in the general population. Objective: To determine the extent of COVID-19 knowledge among RA patients and their attitudes and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenology approach was performed through face-to-face, individual-based, semi-structured interviews in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, rheumatology unit. A convenient sample of RA patients using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs was included until the point of saturation. A thematic content analysis approach was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Twenty-five RA pa
... Show MoreIn this paper, a polymer-based composite material was prepared by hand Lay-up method consisting of epoxy resin as a base material reinforced by magnesium oxide powder once and silicon dioxide powder again and with different weight ratios (3, 6, 9 and 12) wt %. The three-point bending test was performed in normal conditions and after immersion in sulfuric acid. The results showed that the bending value decreased with the increase of the weighted ratio of the reinforcement material (MgO, SiO2). The Bending of samples reinforced by SiO2 was found to be less than the bending of samples reinforced by particles (MgO). For example, the bending of the SiO2 sample (0.32 mm) at the weighted ratio (3%) and for the MgO (0.18mm) sample at the weight
... Show MoreResearch includes three axes, the first is the average estimate time of achievement (day) to work oversight, to five supervisory departments in the Office of Financial Supervision Federal and then choose the three control outputs and at the level of each of the five departments above, and after analyzing the data statistically back to us that the distribution of the times of achievement It is the exponential distribution (Exponential Distribution) a parameter (q), and the distribution of normal (Normal Distribution) with two parameters (μ, σ2), and introduced four methods of parameter estimation (q) as well as four modalities parameter to estimate (
... Show MoreInvestment drives the wheel of the development of different developed and developing countries. Sudan is a model for a developing country facing a lot of difficulties in the field of both local and foreign investment. The present study was focused on the problem of poor diversification and efficiency of both local and foreign investment in Sudan. Also, it clarified the important role of administrative supervision to strengthen the efficiency of investment, taking the experience of the Sudan as a model. The researchers used the well-known descriptive and analytical tools (questionnaire, interview, observation) to complete this study. A well designed questionnaire was used. It included all questions that could cover all aspects of
... Show MoreThis article conclude a theoretical study for the possibility to produce additional electric power from Iraqi steam power plants by cutting – off high-pressure feed water heaters . Three separated steam power plants which Dura , south –Baghdad and Nasria were studied . The investigation showed the possibity of increasing the electric power from 10 to 15% for Dura and Nasria , whereas 6% for south – Baghdad . According to the nowadays of operation to Iraqi steam power plants , the results showed that by cutting–off high pressure feed water heaters we can generate additional electric power about 250 MW during 3-4 hrs. daily. In addition, the fuel consumption can be reduced in comparison with diesel generat
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