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.
The increasing requirement and use of dental implant treatments has rendered dental implantology indispensable in dentistry. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum concentration of calcium silicate to be incorporated into a polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) matrix used as an implant material to enhance the bioactivity and mechanical properties of the composite compared with unmodified PEKK. In this study, different weight percentage (wt%) of micro-calcium silicate (m-CS) is incorporated into PEKK with ethanol as a binder. Subsequently, the mixture is dried in a forced convection oven at 120°C and poured into customized molds to fabricate a bioactive composite via compression molding (310°C, 15 MPa, and 20 min holding time
... Show MoreThis study is an approach to assign the land area of Kirkuk city [ a city located in the northern of Iraq, 236 kilometers north of Baghdad and 83 kilometers south of Erbil [ Climatic atlas of Iraq, 1941-1970 ] into different multi zones by using Satellite image and Arc Map10.3, zones of different traffic noise pollutions. Land zonings process like what achieved in this paper will help and of it’s of a high interest point for the future of Kirkuk city especially urban
... Show MoreThe present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between critical thinking, epistemological beliefs, and learning strategies with the academic performance of high school first-grade male and female students in Yazd. For this purpose, from among all first-grade students, as many as 250 students (130 females and 120 males) were selected by using multistage cluster sampling. The data needed were then collected through using California Critical Thinking Skills Test, Schommer's Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Biggs’ Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire. The findings indicated that there is a positive significant relationship between critical thinking and academic performance and achievement. Moreover, four fa
... Show MoreThe current study aimed to identify the difficulties faced by the student in mathematics and possible proposals to address these difficulties. The study used a descriptive method also used the questionnaire to collect data and information were applied to a sample of (163) male and female teachers. The results of the study found that the degree of difficulties in learning mathematics for the fifth and sixth grades is high for some paragraphs and intermediate for other paragraphs, included the student's field. The results also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α = 0.05) between the responses of the members of the study sample from male and female teachers to the degree of diffi
... Show MoreTo develop a petrol engine so that it works under the bi-engine pattern (producer gas-petrol) without any additional engine modifications, a single-point injection method inside the intake manifold is a simple and inexpensive method. Still, it leads to poor mixing performance between the air and producer gas. This deficiency can cause unsatisfactory engine performance and high exhaust emissions. In order to improve the mixing inside the intake manifold, nine separate cases were modelled to evaluate the impact of the position and angle orientation inside the intake manifold on the uniformity and spread of the mixture under AFR=2.07. A petrol engine (1.6 L), the maximum engine speed (8000 rpm), and bi-engine mode (petrol-producer ga
... Show MoreA set of ten drug compounds containing an amino group in the structure were determined theoretically. The parameters were entered into a model to forecast the optimal values of practical (log P) medicinal molecules. The drugs were evaluated theoretically using different types of calculations which are AM1, PM3, and Hartree Fock at the basis set (HF/STO-3G). The Physico-chemical data like (entropy, total energy, Gibbs Free Energy,…etc were computed and played an important role in the predictions of the practical lipophilicity values. Besides, Eigenvalues named HOMO and LUMO were determined. Linearity was shown when correlated between the experimental data with the evaluated physical properties. The statistical analysis was used to analy
... Show MoreNanocomposites of polymer material based on CdS as filler
material and poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) as host matrix have
been fabricated by chemical spray pyrolysis method on glass
substrate. CdS particles synthesized by co-precipitation route using
cadimium chloride and thioacetamide as starting materials and
ammonium hydroxide as precipitating agent. The structure is
examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the resultant film has
amorphous structure. The optical energy gap is found to be (4.5,
4.06) eV before and after CdS addition, respectively. Electrical
activation energy for CdS/PMMA has two regions with values of
0.079 and 0.433 eV.
The content of Furocoumarin derivatives (Psoralens) of Ruta Chalepensis L. (Whole plant) was studied by simple extraction with petroleum ether (b.p. 60-80Co). The results indicated that the plant contains a total of about (0.015%).
Investigation of these compounds by thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed the presence of at least four compounds of which methoxsalen (8-methoxypsoralen) was isolated. It was identified and authenticated with a standard by spectral method, IR, NMR, Mass spectra and HPLC.This plant could be considered as a good source for supplying this compound, which is widely used in dermatological preparations.
The research problem lies in the ambiguity of the usage of propaganda contents by two main media outlets (the Russian RT and American Alhurra) in their news coverage of the Syrian crisis through their websites and the methods used by them to convince users taking into account the mutual propaganda conflict between the United States and Russia in the war against Syria. The objectives of the research can be represented by the following: investigating the contents of American and Russian electronic propaganda towards Syrian crisis.
• Identifying the contents that received most of the coverage in the Syrian crisis by the two news outlets.
• Identifying the terms and phrases that have been most used by the websites of RT and Alhurr