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 approach of green synthesis of bio-sorbent has become simple alternatives to chemical synths as they use for example plant extracts, plus green synthesis outperforms chemical methods because it is environmentally friendly besides has wide applications in environmental remediation. This paper investigates the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) using green tea nano zero-valent iron (GT-NZVI) in an aqueous solution. The synthesized GT-NZVI was categorized using SEM, AFM, BET, FTIR, and Zeta potentials techniques. The spherical nanoparticles were found to be nano zero-valent, with an average size of 85 nm and a surface area of 2.19m2/g. The results showed that the removal efficiency of ciprofloxacin depends on the initial pH (2.5-10),
... Show MoreIn this work, the effect of aluminum (Al) dust particles on the DC discharge plasma properties in argon was investigated. A magnetron is placed behind the cathode at different pressures and with varying amounts of Al. The plasma temperature (Te) and density (ne) were calculated using the Boltzmann equation and Stark broadening phenomena, which are considered the most important plasma variables through which the other plasma parameters were calculated. The measurements showed that the emission intensity decreases with increasing pressure from 0.06 to 0.4 Torr, and it slightly decreases with the addition of the NPs. The calculations showed that the ne increased and Te decreased with pressure. Both Te and ne were reduced by increasing
... Show MoreThe paper discusses the structural and optical properties of In 2 O 3 and In 2 O 3-SnO 2 gas sensor thin films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates and grown by irradiation of assistant microwave on seeded layer nucleated using spin coating technique. The X-ray diffraction revealed a polycrystalline nature of the cubic structure. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) used for morphology analysis that shown the grain size of the prepared thin film is less than 100 nm, surface roughness and root mean square for In 2 O 3 where increased after loading SnO 2 , this addition is a challenge in gas sensing application. Sensitivity of In 2 O 3 thin film against NO 2 toxic gas is 35% at 300 o C. Sensing properties were improved after adding Tin Oxi
... Show MoreThis study included 50 blood serum samples that collected from children with age ranged between 7-12 years. Thirty five samples collected from children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1D), and 15 blood serum samples collected from healthy children as a control sample. The polymorphism of IL-4 -590 (C>T) gene, which amplified by using amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS-PCR) was showed high percentage of C allele frequency in T1D patients sample in comparison with T allele frequency, and the C allele revealed as etiological faction with risk by having T1D disease, whereas the T allele showed high frequency from the C allele frequency in control sample, and the T allele revealed as preventive faction from infection by this disease.
... Show MoreAeromonas salmonicida is a fish pathogen and recognized to cause a variety of diseases in humans. There are a few information about A.salmonicida in Iraq and there is no any previous molecular study on it. During the period of December 2017 to May 2018; Sixteen isolates of the A. salmonicida were isolated and identified from 300 common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fishes stomach in aquarium of Erbil city/ Iraq by using manual, automated Vitek 2 compact system, and confirmed by PCR using gene TonB-dependent siderophore (364bp). Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion method and the results found that all isolates 100% susceptible to imipenem, 100% resistant to nalidixic acid and variable resistan
... Show MoreIn this work a study and calculation of the normal approach between two bodies,
spherical and rough flat surface, had been conducted by the aid of image processing
technique. Four kinds of metals of different work hardening index had been used as a
surface specimens and by capturing images of resolution of 0.006565 mm/pixel a good estimate of the normal approach may be obtained the compression tests had been done in strength of material laboratory in mechanical engineering department, a Monsanto tensometer had been used to conduct the indentation tests. A light section measuring equipment microscope BK 70x50 was used to calculate the surface parameters of the texture profile like standard deviation of asperity peak heights