Let’s Practice English Idioms! VIII

What’s the biggest obstacle in your journey of exploring English? It could be grammar, pronunciation, or huge amount of vocabulary that seems to be endless. Above all, idiomatic expressions that have hidden, figurative meanings. Without understanding the cultural background or conventional usage of idioms, one can hardly imagine what those words are supposed to mean.

Using the given list of idioms and your imagination, try to choose a proper expression to fill in the blank of each sentence below.

a.   make a mountain out of a molehill

b.   pig out on (food)

c.   hold one’s horses

d.   draw a blank

e.   (something) slip one’s mind

f.    It’s in the bag.

g.   give someone the cold shoulder

h.   get a kick out of

i.    get off one’s high horse

j.    to feel like a fish out of water

1.   My boss normally enjoys golfing on weekends. Yes, golfing is the only sports that he ______________________________________________ in his ife.

2.   Tom ________________________ on the whole bag of potato chips whenever he’s stressed out.

3.   Do you think Melinda is ready to launch her new online business? I personally think she will make it! it’s _____________________________________ .

4.   Hey, Josh, please get  _____________________________________! Nobody will be your friend if you keep that stuck-up attitude!

5.   Phil, you just made one tinny-tiny mistake on the test, and it’s not the end of the world. Don’t ____________________________________________________ like that, please!

6.   Mary’s father gave his 15 year-old daughter’s new boyfriend the ___________________________________ because he thought she was too young to have a boyfriend.

7.   I told Jack to __________________________________ when he became badly mad while driving as the road hog kept changing his lanes so fast without giving signals.

8.   Kirstin felt like a _______________________________________, because she was the only Asian in the church of African Americans.

9.   I felt so awkward drawing _________________________________  at the high school reunion, because I wasn’t able to remember quite a lot of friends there.

10.                So terribly sorry that I forgot about your birthday, Patty! It totally _____________________________________________.

Clues

to make a mountain out of a molehill:  (verb) to make something that is not important into a big deal

to pig out: (verb) to eat/ devour a lot

to hold one’s horses: (verb) to wait a minute

to draw a blank: (verb) cannot remember (or fail in doing something)

(something) to slip one’s mind: (verb) to forget

It’s in the bag.: (sentence) It’s a certainty.

to give someone the cold shoulder: (verb) to ignore someone deliberately/ to treat someone in an unfriendly way

to get a kick out of something: (verb) to find something interesting and funny, to be amused by something/ to find pleasure in something

to get off one’s high horse: (verb) to quit thinking that you are better than others/ to stop behaving in a superior manner

to feel like a fish out of water : (verb) being somewhere you don’t belong

Answer Keys

1.   h. gets a kick out of

2.   b. pigs out

3.   f. in the bag

4.   i. get off your high horse

5.   a. make a mountain out of a molehill

6.   g. the cold shoulder

7.   c. hold his horses

8.   j. a fish out of water

9.   d. a blank
10. e. slipped my mind