(Answers from last time: 1-e; 2-g; 3-a; 4-f; 5-i; 6-b; 7-h; 8-j; 9-d; 10-c)
Hello,
Today we are going to learn some idioms based on fruits.
It’s summer so probably many of us buy lemons to prepare some delicious lemonade. But if you ‘buy a lemon’, you buy something that is worthless, a product that does not work well, particularly a car: e.g. That car he bought is a real lemon.
But why do we associate this fruit with defective products? A ‘lemon’ is a citrus fruit with a sour flavour and perhaps it’s a metaphor for something which ‘leaves a bad taste in sb’s mouth.’
But when you buy something for very little money, for almost nothing, you buy it ’for peanuts’: e.g. I bought my phone for peanuts.
When you become extremely angry or excited and behave in a crazy way, you ’go bananas’: e.g. She will go bananas when she finds out that you’re getting married.
A weak or corrupt country is called a ’banana republic’ (informal/ offensive). The most important person, the top person in a group or organisation is called the ’top banana’, while a ’second banana’ is a subordinate, someone less important or powerful.
If life is just a bowl of cherries, then it is easy and pleasant and only good things happen in life. But this phrase is often used ironically to mean the opposite: e.g. She has just been fired. Life is just a bowl of cherries, right? Another interesting idiom with cherry is ‘to cherry – pick’, which means to choose something very carefully, maybe because we usually select cherries attentively, looking for the best.
You can use ‘rotten/bad apple’ to describe a bad person, whereas a very nice person can be referred to as ‘a peach’: e.g. Thanks for your help! You are a peach! ‘A hard/ tough nut to crack’ is a difficult person, problem or thing to deal with.
When you compare two things that are completely different, so they should not be compared, you ’compare apples and oranges’: e.g. It’s like comparing apples and oranges when we compare the two books.
The idiom ‘’the apple never falls far from the tree’ is often used negatively or ironically and it means that children are similar to their parents.
If someone pretends not to want a thing just because he/ she cannot have it, you can use the idiom ’sour grapes’ to describe this attitude: e.g. I know that you really want the job. Criticizing it is just sour grapes.
These are, ’in a nutshell’ (briefly, in a few words), some interesting idioms based on fruits.
Good luck!
Sursa foto aici.
Autor:
Cecilia Stănia – Trainer intern A_BEST Limba Engleză
Cecilia Stănia este absolventă a Facultăţii de Limbi şi Literaturi Străine Dimitrie Cantemir, specializarea Studii Limba şi literatura Engleză– Limba şi Literatura Germană, promoţia 2010.
Cecilia a fost mereu interesată să-şi îmbunătăţească cunoştinţele de limba engleză, de aceea ea a urmat modulul Psihopedagogic Nivelul I.
În calitate de trainer A_BEST, Cecilia predă engleza – limbaj general şi business – în mediul corporate.
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