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.
Background: The purposes of this study were to determine the photogrammetric soft tissue facial profile measurements for Iraqi adults sample with class I normal occlusion using Standardized photographic techniques and to verify the existence of possible gender differences. Materials and methods: Eighty Iraqi adult subjects (40 males and 40 females) with an age ranged between 18-25 years having class I normal occlusion were chosen for this study. Each individual was subjected to clinical examination and digital standardized right side photographic records were taken in the natural head position which is mirror position which the patient looking straight into his eyes into the mirror mounted on the stand. The photographs were analyzed using A
... Show MoreBackground: Postoperative morbidity after extraction of the impacted mandibular third molar (IMTM) is inevitable. One of the most common postoperative complication is alveolar osteitis (AO) which is a painful non healed socket. Many researches were attempted to prevent the occurrence of AO by introducing and applying a new materials inside the extraction socket. Platelet rich fibrin (PRF) is a biological complex fibrin matrix where autologous platelets and leucocytes are present, used to enhance tissue healing process and reduce the early adverse effects of the inflammation. Aims: To evaluate the effect of PRF on the incidence of AO. Also to assess PRF effect on pain, swelling, and trismus following the surgical removal of IMTM and
... Show MoreThe mobile phone is widespread all over the world. This technology is one of the most widespread with more than five billion subscriptions making people describe this interaction system as Wireless Intelligence. Mobile phone networks become the focus of attention of researchers, organizations and governments due to its penetration in all life fields. Analyzing mobile phone traces allows describing human mobility with accuracy as never done before. The main objective in this contribution is to represent the people density in specific regions at specific duration of time according to raw data (mobile phone traces). This type of spatio-temporal data named CDR (Call Data Records), which have properties of the time and spatial indications for th
... Show MoreBackground: Postoperative morbidity after extraction of the impacted mandibular third molar (IMTM) is inevitable. One of the most common postoperative complication is alveolar osteitis (AO) which is a painful non healed socket. Many researches were attempted to prevent the occurrence of AO by introducing and applying a new materials inside the extraction socket. Platelet rich fibrin (PRF) is a biological complex fibrin matrix where autologous platelets and leucocytes are present, used to enhance tissue healing process and reduce the early adverse effects of the inflammation. Aims: To evaluate the effect of PRF on the incidence of AO. Also to assess PRF effect on pain, swelling, and trismus following the surgical removal of IMTM and compa
... Show MoreABSTRACT Background: Improving the properties of heat- cured and self-cured acrylic resin have been studied by many researchers. However, little studies concerned with visible light cured resin (VLCR) improved through addition of nanofiller are available. The purpose of this study was to evaluate some properties of (VLCR) after addition of SiO2 nanofiller. Materials and Methods: SiO2 nanofiller were added to (VLCR) tray material after being dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent. According to the pilot study 2% SiO2 nanofiller addition exhibited better properties than the other percentages (1%, 3%). The main study conducted involved (100) specimens divided into 5 groups according to the test included. (20) Specimens were selecte
... Show MoreThis study aims at identifying the notion of Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) pertinent to the performance of three general hospitals constructed inside the Sulaimani City, tracing the relationship between the quality of the indoor environments and medical staff (doctors and nurses) satisfaction level. Using some indoor environment elements in the right way will positively influence the mood, stress level of the medical staff, and patient recovery as a result. The POE toolkits (AEDET and ASPECT) have been implemented on targeted wards at the selected hospitals. AEDET and ASPECT questionnaires were distributed among 152 medical staff to obtain their perspectives. In total, 112 valid questionnaires were received. The medica
... Show MoreThe current research aims to find out the role of transformational leadership in decision-making wise, to cope with the decline in some of the banking performance indicators as a result of the absence of the modern concept of the leadership of those so-called B (Transformational Leadership) and preventing benefit from the advantages in the banks, and I test the research on a sample of the Iraqi private banks through applied to a sample (77) Mdermvud and Associate Director and Advisor to the Chairman of the Department, the distributors (7) banks, and used the head of the questionnaire as a tool to collect data and information. For the purpose of access to the results, the research sought to test two hypotheses two main hypotheses sub pop
... Show MoreThe study aims to build a proposed training program for school leaders in the Sultanate of Oman on the planning practices of the Kaufman model in light of the needs and challenges of reality. It also aims to identify the challenges facing school leaders in practicing the stages of strategic planning. To achieve these objectives, the study adopted the descriptive approach due to its suitability to the nature of the study. A questionnaire was used to collect the needed data. The study sample included (225) individuals from school principals, their assistants and senior teachers in post-basic education in the Sultanate of Oman. After processing the data statistically, the study concluded that the reality of planning practices for school lea
... Show MoreResearch seeks to test the impact of the dimensions of mindfulness on organizational Innovation, proposed in the light of the review literature on two variables of the research, which referred in General to the dynamic relationship between them, as result of weakness of mindfulness as one important factor driving the diversity of innovation and time, ways to sustain and preserve and then support innovations made by creators, weakness in the overall level of organizational Innovation, this represents the problem research, data collection over designing identification, distributed to sample Formed from (30) head Department at a number of colleges of the University of Baghdad, results confirms the validity of resea
... Show MoreThe weight of larvae virgins and Alcamlat for males more than the weight of females of the roles themselves that the highest rate of loss in weight of larvae developed to virgins when field conditions were (21.5,22,21.3) mg during June and July and August respectively, recorded the highest degrees of heat and less attributed to moisture