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 pure ZnS and ZnS-Gr nanocomposite have been prepared
successfully by a novel method using chemical co-precipitation. Also
conductive polymer PPy nanotubes and ZnS-PPy nanocomposite
have been synthesized successfully by chemical route. The effect of
graphene on the characterization of ZnS has been investigated. X-ray
diffraction (XRD) study confirmed the formation of cubic and
hexagonal structure of ZnS-Gr. Dc-conductivity proves that ZnS and
ZnS-Gr have semiconductor behavior. The SEM proved that
formation of PPy nanotubes and the Gr nanosheet. The sensing
properties of ZnS-PPy/ZnS-Gr for NO2 gas was investigated as a
function of operating temperature and time under optimal condition.
The sensitivity,
Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age with primary manifestations of infertility, menstrual dysfunction and clinical or biochemical hyperandrogenism (hirsutism, acne and elevated androgen). Adiponectin is the most abundant adipokine. It has insulin-sensitizing, anti-atherogenic, and antiinflammatory actions.Objective: Low adiponectin levels in women with PCOS have been largely attributed to obesity which is common among these patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to measure adiponectin levels in normal weight women with PCOS and its contribution to development of disease.Subjects and Methods: Fifty two (52) women were included in this study with age ra
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Psychological research centers help indirectly contact professionals from the fields of human life, job environment, family life, and psychological infrastructure for psychiatric patients. This research aims to detect job apathy patterns from the behavior of employee groups in the University of Baghdad and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This investigation presents an approach using data mining techniques to acquire new knowledge and differs from statistical studies in terms of supporting the researchers’ evolving needs. These techniques manipulate redundant or irrelevant attributes to discover interesting patterns. The principal issue identifies several important and affective questions taken from
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In the present study, 1-ethyl -3-methyllimidazolium acetate ionic liquid is introduced for extractive desulfurization of Iraqi kerosene (1622ppm) and compared with 1-ethyl -3- methyllimidazolium tetrafloroborate. The effect of ionic liquid/ fuel ratio (1/9, 1/4, 1/2), temperature (25, 30,40oC), stirring speed (300,450rpm) and time (10, 30, 90, 180, 360 min) were studied. Sulfur compound analysis was performed using X-Ray fluorescence. The ionic liquid with acetate anion (OAc) showed better performance than tetrafloborate (BF4). The maximum extraction efficiency was 32% achieved at 1/2 IL/Fuel and 40oC after 90min. The oxidation step using hydrogen peroxide (8ml/200ml), catalyzed by acetic acid (2ml) and followed by ionic liquid extraction h
... Show MoreVaginal biopsies and smears were collected from ten adult local healthy goats. Routine histological methods were carried out on vaginal biopsies and then stained with PAS stain. The smears were stained with Methylene blue. All samples were inspected under light microscope. The present study found that many constituents of the wall of the vagina, which have an important functional role, were absent; among these were the vaginal glands, goblet cells, muscularis mucosa, and lymphatic nodules. On the other hand, vagina showed special compensatory histological mechanisms, namely, the deep epithelial folds, the well-developed germinated stratum basale, the apparent basement membrane, and the profuse defensive cells, such as neutrophils, m
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Objective: The study aim to evaluate secondary schools students' exposure to risk factors in Al-Najaf City. Methodology: Descriptive study conducted in Al- Najaf City/Iraq on students at secondary schools, those aged (12-24) years old, for the period from the 13ed of November 2015 and up to 4ed of August 2015. The sample included secondary school from those schools . Data is collected through a constructed questionnaire, reliability and students (intermediate and secondary) (540) student; (270) male and (270) females who are selected randomly content validity process has been determined for the instrument. Dat
Liquid – liquid equilibria data were measured at 293.15 K for the pseudo ternary system (sulfolane + alkanol) + octane + toluene. It is observed that the selectivity of pure sulfolane increases with cosolvent methanol but decreases with increasing the chain length of hydrocarbon in 1-alkanol. The nonrandom two liquid (NRTL) model, UNIQUAC model and UNIFAC model were used to correlate the experimental data and to predict the phase composition of the systems studied. The calculation based on NRTL model gave a good representation of the experimental tie-line data for all systems studied. The agreement between the correlated and the experimental results was very good
Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. The metabolism of iron is closely regulated by hepcidin which exerts its action by interacting with a ferroportin.
The aim of the present study was to assess the alterations in the levels of some serum biomarkers that have a role in iron homeostasis (hepcidin and ferroportin) in addition to hematological parameters (hemoglobin, leukocyte and platelets count) in different stages of BC.
This study included 66 women with BC. The patients were categorized as follows : group 1 includes :22 patients with stage I disease ,group 2 includes: 22 patients with stage II disease ,and group 3 include: 22 patients with stage III disease .Group 4 includes :22 appare
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