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.
Rotaviruses, a major cause of gastroenteritis in children worldwide accounts for around half a million deaths annually. Vaccine against the virus has been recommended by the WHO to be involved in the national immunization program.To evaluate the genetic characterization of rotavirus among children with acute gastroenteritis in Babylon province is warranted. Children complained of diarrhea with rotavirus infection detected in their stool were involved in the study. The age range was 10 months to 60 months and with retrogradechecking of rotavirus vaccine history. Rotavirus genotypes were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).A total number of 40 children with rotavirus gastroenteritis were used to examine the
... Show Moreالتعددية السياسية بين الرفلض والقبول دراسة نظرية لأبرز الاتجاهات الاسلامية المعاصرة
This paper involved the registration of 1,936 cases of infection of the Leishmania tropica parasite observed at hospitals and health centers in Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdadi, and Hit during 2017. The results revealed that the highest rates of infection were found in Ramadi and Fallujah. The 1-10 years age group recorded the highest rate at 35.5%. There was no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) between the sexes. December and January saw the highest rate of infection, where the rate in rural townships was found to be 65.5%, higher than in urban regions which saw a rate of 34.4%. Facial lesions were the most prominent area of infection, recorded at a rate of 41.3%. The study also included an examination of 180 rodents (94 mice and 86 black r
... Show MoreIn this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current densi
... Show MoreSliver / Sliver chloride is as old used from human but the sliver / sliver chloride nanoparticles have only recently been recogenized. They have used in medicin and agiculture. In the present study have been investigation the effecte biosynthesis Sliver / Sliver chloride nanoparticles as antibacterial by demonstrated that Ag / AgCl NPs arrest the growth of many bacterial: S.typhimurium, k. pneumonia. S. aureus, L.monocytogenes, B. Anthracis, E. coli, C. frundi, S. Pneumonia, P. Aeruginosa. The elements compestion and crystallization panal of biosynthesized nanoparticles were chracterazated by FTIR, XRD and SEM. From XRD, It is confirmed the synthesized nanoparticles contain Sliver / Sliver chloride elements. Synthesized Ag / AgCl NPs showed
... Show MoreIn this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current density (C
... Show MoreIn this research an experimental study has done for testing the thermal performance of selective surfaces used in solar collectors for substrate of iron, galvanized iron and aluminum which are commercially available. The coating process for the samples has done in two ways, the electroplating and the chemical spray pyrolysis. The results of the thermal performance test of these samples are comparing with the thermal performance of a sample without paint and other paint with black paint without shines commercially available. For the electroplated samples, the performance study has done for different immersion time in plating bath, the
distance between electrical poles, the current density, and area ratio of the sample plated area to
The reservoir characterization and rock typing is a significant tool in performance and prediction of the reservoirs and understanding reservoir architecture, the present work is reservoir characterization and quality Analysis of Carbonate Rock-Types, Yamama carbonate reservoir within southern Iraq has been chosen. Yamama Formation has been affected by different digenesis processes, which impacted on the reservoir quality, where high positively affected were: dissolution and fractures have been improving porosity and permeability, and destructive affected were cementation and compaction, destroyed the porosity and permeability. Depositional reservoir rock types characterization has been identified de
This research explores the concept of cruel optimism in the context of challenging patriarchal, cultural, and social traditions in Ayad Akhtar’s The Who and the What. Cruel optimism, a term coined by Lauren Berlant, refers to the paradoxical attachment to positive aspirations that may ultimately obstruct personal fulfillment and well-being. This study examines how individuals who resist patriarchal norms and entrenched cultural traditions often face significant emotional, psychological, and social challenges. Through a multidisciplinary approach, including literary analysis, sociological perspectives, and psychological insights, the research delves into the lived experiences of those who strive for autonomy, equality, and self-realization
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