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.
Modern automation robotics have replaced many human workers in industrial factories around the globe. The robotic arms are used for several manufacturing applications, and their responses required optimal control. In this paper, a robust approach of optimal position control for a DC motor in the robotic arm system is proposed. The general component of the automation system is first introduced. The mathematical model and the corresponding transfer functions of a DC motor in the robotic arm system are presented. The investigations of using DC motor in the robotic arm system without controller lead to poor system performance. Therefore, the analysis and design of a Proportional plus Integration plus Divertive (PID) controller is illustrated.
... Show More
(5)
(3)
Cataract is an opacity in the normally transparent focusing lens of the eye which leads to blindness. The aim of current study is to investigate the possible protective and therapeutic effects of aqueous extract of Foeniculum vulgare seed eye drops (0.5%) against selenite induced cataract in rabbits. Aqueous extract of Foeniculum vulgare seed prepared then formulated as eye drops. Sodium selenite used to induce cataract in rabbits' right eye by single intravitreal injection. Thirty-six rabbits included in the study and divided into three equal groups (12 rabbits in each group): healthy control group, Cataract-Induced group and group treated by Foeniculum vulgare seed extract eye drops. Parameters include the score of lens opacity which was
... Show MoreAbstract Objective: The underlying molecular basis of ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) has not yet been studied among Iraqi people. This study determined the frequency and types of some cardiovascular genetic risk factors among Iraqi patients with IHDs. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study recruiting 56 patients with acute IHD during a 2-month period excluding patients >50 years and patients with documented hyperlipidemia. Their ages ranged between 18 and 50 years; males were 54 and females were only 2. Peripheral blood samples were aspirated from all patients for troponin I and DNA testing. Molecular analysis to detect 12 common cardiovascular genetic risk factors using CVD StripAssay® (ViennaLab Diagnostics GmbH, Austria) was performed
... Show MoreCr2O3 thin films have been prepared by spray pyrolysis on a glass substrate. Absorbance and transmittance spectra were recorded in the wavelength range (300-900) nm before and after annealing. The effects of annealing temperature on absorption coefficient, refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant and optical conductivity were expected. It was found that all these parameters increase as the annealing temperature increased to 550°C.
(3)
(2)
Salt stress negatively affects germination and seedling growth. Sorghum cultivars (Bohuth70, Inqath and Rabeh), seed soaking in dry yeast extract (3, 6 and 9 g l-1) in addition to dry seeds and electrical conductivity (4, 10 and 16 dS m-1) were studied. Traits of germination ratio at first and final counts, lengths of radicle and plumule, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour index were studied. The cultivar of Bohuth70 and concentration of yeast extract (9 g l-1) were superior at all studied traits, while all traits values were reduced with increased saline stress. The combination (Bohuth70×9×4) was superior to most other treatments at first and final counts, radicle length and seedling dry weight, while superiority of plumule length a
... Show More
(7)
Background: The incidence of maternal mortality in
placenta previa accrete is 7%,and its preoperative
diagnosis is of a great value.
Objective: to evaluate the efficacy of transabdominal
color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing placenta
previa accreta and inccreta. Color Doppler imaging
criteria used in: includes diffuse parenchymal
placental lacunar flow, focal intra parenchymal
placental lacunar flow and bladder uterine serosa
interphase hyper-vascularity.
Design: Prospective study on patients from
January2007 to January 2008.
Patients and method: 48patients with one caesarean
section or more and with persistent anterior placenta
previa diagnosed by transabdominal ultrasound were
examined by c
(16)
Video streaming is widely available nowadays. Moreover, since the pandemic hit all across the globe, many people stayed home and used streaming services for news, education, and entertainment. However, when streaming in session, user Quality of Experience (QoE) is unsatisfied with the video content selection while streaming on smartphone devices. Users are often irritated by unpredictable video quality format displays on their smartphone devices. In this paper, we proposed a framework video selection scheme that targets to increase QoE user satisfaction. We used a video content selection algorithm to map the video selection that satisfies the user the most regarding streaming quality. Video Content Selection (VCS) are classified in
... Show More
(1)
In this work, metal oxide nanostructures, mainly copper oxide (CuO), nickel oxide (NiO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and multilayer structure, were synthesized by the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of deposition time on the spectroscopic characteristics, as well as on the nanoparticle size, was determined. A long deposition time allows more metal atoms sputtered from the target to bond to oxygen atoms and form CuO, NiO, or TiO2 molecules deposited as thin films on glass substrates. The structural characteristics of the final samples showed high structural purity as no other compounds than CuO, NiO, and TiO2 were found in the final samples. Also, the prepared multilayer structures did not show new compounds other than th
... Show More
(25)
(8)