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Idioms Related to a New Beginning


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 (that are related to ‘a new beginning’) and your imagination, try to choose a proper expression to fill in the blank of each sentence below. (source from https://www.spellzone.com/blog/post.cfm?title=Twenty_Idioms_for_New_Beginnings)


a a.   new blood: new members of a group (who usually bring with them fresh ideas about how the group might run)

   b.   to blow away the cobwebs: to refresh yourself from a state of sluggishness.

c  c.    a new lease of life: an occasion or circumstance that leads you to becoming more energetic than you were previously

   d.   to quit cold turkey: to abruptly and completely give something up (i.e. drugs, alcohol, caffeine)

   e.   to blaze a trail: to innovate in a particular field and thus lead the way for others.

f  f.    at a /the crossroads: at the point where you must make the choice between two courses of action with diverging consequences

   g.   to go or be back to square one: to acknowledge that an idea has been unsuccessful and that you will need to come up with a new one

   h.   to make a clean breast of it: to admit to your mistakes/ to confess completely


<1> In any field of work, we need someone who has the courage to ______________________________________ so that people could follow or benchmark at their own pace.

<2> _____________________ can sometimes show you the way that existing people may not see. That is why my team manager wants to use this rookie to break mannerism in their projects.

<3> Today we see a lot of victims of sexual harassment or violence step up and let their voice heard in public. It is time for the sexual criminals to ________________________________ all.

<4> Eddy has been a heavy drinker for years, but he wanted to change his life one day. He quit alcohol '___________________,' and started to work out every day.

<5> Spring is in the air!!! We’ve been staying cooped up, being a potato couch all winter long. Now is the perfect time to go outside and _________________________________ !

<6> Another relationship went down the tubes! Ugh! I’m back to ______________________________ yet again.

<7> Since her artificial knee replacement surgery, she's had a __________________________. Now she’s even considering signing up for a Zoomba class at her local gym.

<8> Jess is standing at ______________________ as to what to do in this critical situation.

<Answer Keys>
  1.   blaze a trail
  2.   new blood
  3.   make a clean breast of it
  4.   cold turkey
  5.   blow away the cobwebs
  6.   square one
  7.   lease of life
  8.   a/ the crossroads

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