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.
Trip generation is the first phase in the travel forecasting process. It involves the estimation of the
total number of trips entering or leaving a parcel of land per time period (usually on a daily basis);
as a function of the socioeconomic, locational, and land-use characteristics of the parcel.
The objective of this study is to develop statistical models to predict trips production volumes for a
proper target year. Non-motorized trips are considered in the modeling process. Traditional method
to forecast the trip generation volume according to trip rate, based on family type is proposed in
this study. Families are classified by three characteristics of population social class, income, and
number of vehicle ownersh
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Aim: surface modification of titanium using fiber laser 1064 nm to enhance the bond strength to resin cement. Material and Methods: thirty titanium discs of 0.6 cm x 0.3 cm (diameter and thickness respectively) were categorized after preparation into three groups (n=10) as follows: control group with no surface treatment and two test groups were treated with fiber laser after estimation the appropriate parameters in the pilot study which are 81 ns pulse duration, 30,000 Hz frequency, 50 µm spot size and 10,000 mm/s scanning speed and different average power values (10 W and 20 W) depending on the tested group. Titanium discs surface characterization was performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), a
... Show MoreBackground: This clinical trial aims to evaluate the color changes of direct resin composite veneer (DCV) restorations based on spectrophotometric analysis of 4 different types of resin composites between the baseline immediately after polishing and after one year of follow-up. Materials and methods: 28 patients were assessed for eligibility for participation, aged between 18 and 38 years old, who indicated for DCV restorations in anterior maxillary teeth were considered for participation in this study. In total, 25 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected (6 males and 19 females, mean age: 20.9 at the time of restoration placement), and 3 patients were excluded. Partic
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Air stripping for removal of Trichloroethylene (TCE), Chloroform (CF) and Dichloromethane (DCM) from water were studied in a bubble column (0.073 m inside dia. and 1.08 m height with several sampling ports). The contaminated water was prepared from deionized water and VOCs. The presence of VOCs in feed solution was single, binary or ternary components. They were diluted to the concentrations ranged between 50 mg/l to 250 mg/l. The experiments were carried out in batch experiments which regard the bubble column as stirred tank and only gas was bubbled through stationary liquid. In this case transient measurements of VOC concentration in the liquid phase and the measured concentra
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Extended calculations for sputtering yield through bombed Iron – target by ( H,D ,T ,He ) ions plasma are accomplished .The calculations include changing the input parameters : the energy of ( H,D ,T ,He ) ions plasma, the hit target angle of Iron, change atomic mass of incident ion. The program TRIM is used to accomplish these calculations. The results show that sputtering yield is directly dependent on these parameters. It can change the incident angle of ( H,D ,T ,He ) ions and energy&n
... Show MoreIn the present work, a closed loop circulation system consist of three testing sections was designed and constructed. The testing sections made from (3m) of commercial carbon steel pipe of diameters(5.08, 2.54 and 1.91 cm) . Anionic surfactant (SDBS )with concentrations of (50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 ppm) was tested as a drag reducing agent. The additive(SDBS)studied using crude oil from south of Iraq. The flow rates of crude oil were used in 5.08 and 2.54 cm I.D. pipes are (1 - 12) m3/hr while (1-6) m3/hr were used in 1.91 cm J .D. pipe . Percentage drag reduction (%Dr) was found to increase by increasing solution velocity, pipe diameter and additives concentration (i.e. increasi
... Show MoreThis Action research aimed at Assisting Students of Faculty of Educational Sciences at Al-Quds Open University to design computerized lessons using the Power Point software and according to ADDIE model. The study sample consisted of 40 students who were taking a course titled Technology of Education during the second semester of the 2014-2015 academic year and three academic instructors . To collect the required date , the researchers used focus group technique and structured interviews to get information from the 40 students and the three academic instructors involved in the course Technology of Education in QOU /Nablus Branch. In addition to these methods, a workshop with a guiding checklist was employed t
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The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of prey type (Artemia nauplii, mosquito larvae and paramecium) on some reproductive aspects in crustacean zooplankton M. albidus which included reproductive period, post reproductive period, period spend to egg appearance and the period from appearance of egg to nauplii releasing. Results revealed that females fed on mosquito larvae had the highest mean of postreproductive period and lowest mean of the period spend to egg appearance, which differed significantly (P < 0.05) compared with the means of females who fed on Artemia nauplii and paramecium on the other hand the differences were not significant in reproductive period and the period from appearance of egg to nauplii releasing.