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A Study of the Problems of Learning and Translating Idioms
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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.

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Publication Date
Mon Mar 30 2026
Journal Name
Anbar University Journal Of Languages And Literature
Pain Woven into the Body: A Study of Somatics in Emtithal Mahmoud and Jasmin Kaur's Selected Poems
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Publication Date
Sun Jan 01 2017
Journal Name
Aro-the Scientific Journal Of Koya University
A Comparative Study for String Metrics and the Feasibility of Joining them as Combined Text Similarity Measures
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Publication Date
Fri Jul 01 2022
Journal Name
Iop Conference Series: Earth And Environmental Science
A study Some Technical Indicators Under Impact Tillage Depth and Disk harrow Angle of the Compound Machine
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Abstract<p>The research included studying the effect of different plowing depths (10,20and30) cm and three angles of the disc harrows (18,20and25) when they were combined in one compound machine consisting of a triple plow and disc harrows tied within one structure. Draft force, fuel consumption, practical productivity, and resistance to soil penetration. The results indicated that the plowing depth and disc angle had a significant effect on all studied parameters. The results showed that when the plowing depth increased and the disc angle increased, leads to increased pull force ratio, fuel consumption, resistance to soil penetration, and reduce the machine practical productivity.</p>
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Publication Date
Tue Sep 01 2020
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
A Comparative Study on the Active Constituents, Antioxidant Capacity and Anti-Cancer Activity of Cruciferous Vegetable Residues
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This study is pointed out to estimate the effectiveness of two solvents in the extraction and evaluating the active ingredients and their antioxidant activity as well as anti-cancer efficiency. Therefore, residues from four different Brassica vegetables viz. broccoli, Brussels sprout, cauliflower, and red cherry radish were extracted using two procedures methods: methanolic and water crude extracts. Methanol extracts showed the highest content of total phenolic (TP), total flavonoids (TF), and total tannins (TT) for broccoli and Brussels sprouts residues. Methanolic extract of broccoli and Brussels sprouts residues showed the highest DPPH· scavenging activity (IC50 = 15.39 and 18.64 µg/ml). The methanol and water ex

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Publication Date
Wed Jan 30 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of The College Of Education For Women
The Difficulties which Face Public Basic School Principals in Jarash Governorate in Editing Formal Letters and Correspondence and Means of Dealing With These Problems as Perceived by Them
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This study aimed at identity baying the difficulties which face public basic school
principals in jar ash governorate in editing formal letters and correspondence and means of
debating with these problems to collect data the researchers developed a question air were
established the population of the study which represents its sample consisted of 129 principals
65 males and 64 females
The results of the study revealed that the principals face difficulties in office and file
management in preparing plans and reports and writing formal letters and answering them
saved recommendations were presented among which were organizing training sessions and
workshops to train the principals on how to dead with there problems.<

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Publication Date
Sun Jun 28 2026
Journal Name
Journal Of Physical Education
The Learning Gap between Classroom Education and Artificial Intelligence-Based Education in Curriculum Design among Students of the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences from the Students' Perspective
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       The present study aimed to identify the learning gap between classroom-based education and artificial intelligence (AI)-based education among students of Colleges of Physical Education and Sports Sciences. It also sought to determine the effectiveness of classroom education and AI-based education in reducing the learning gap among these students. The research problem addressed the following questions: Are there statistically significant differences in the learning gap between students who learn through traditional classroom education and those who learn through AI-based education in Colleges of Physical Education and Sports Sciences? What is the nature of the learning gap between classroom education and AI-based educati

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Publication Date
Sat Jul 19 2025
Journal Name
Annals Of Applied Sport Science
A Comparative Study of the Average Motor Response Time for the Arms and Legs of Handball, Basketball, and Volleyball Players Aged 14-16 Years
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Background. The motor response is a fundamental ability that is evident during any physical or motor activity. However, the need for this ability varies from one sport to another and depends on the specific skills required in each sport. Objectives. This study aims to compare the average motor reaction times of the arm and leg among handball, basketball, and volleyball players aged 14 to 16 years. Methods. The sample included 30 players aged 14-16 years from the sports talent care center, evenly distributed on handball, basketball, and volleyball. Standardized tests were used to measure the speed of motor response, including the Batak Micro test for hands, which records the number of responses to light stimuli in 30 seconds, and the Saqer t

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
Materials Today: Proceedings
Study the electronic and spectroscopic properties of ALxB7-XN7 Wurtzoids as a function of size and concentration using density functional theory
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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
Materials Today: Proceedings
Study the electronic and spectroscopic properties of ALxB7-XN7 Wurtzoids as a function of size and concentration using density functional theory
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Electronic properties including (bond length, energy gap, HOMO, LUMO and density of state) as well as spectroscopic properties such like infrared, Raman scattering, force constant, reduced mass and longitu- dinal optical mode as a function of frequency are based on size and concentration of the molecular and nanostructures of aluminum nitride ALN, boron nitride BN and AlxB7-XN7 as nanotubes has calculated using Ab –initio approximation method dependent on density functional theory and generalized gradient approximation. The geometrical structure are calculated by using Gauss view 05 as a complementary program. Shows the energy gap of ALN, BN and AlxB7-XN7 as a function of the total number of atoms , start from smallest molecule to reached

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Publication Date
Sun Oct 01 2017
Journal Name
Journal Of Educational And Psychological Researches
The effect of using active learning model in the achievement of fourth -grade material in the de partment of physics teaching aids students and the development then critical thinking
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Goal  of  research  is  to  investigate  the  impact  of the  use  of  effective  learning  model in the  collection  of  the  fourth  grade  students/Department of  physics in the material  educational methods  and the  development  of  critical thinking  .to teach  this goal  has  been  formulated  hypothesis cefereeten zero  subsidiary  of the second hypothesis  .To  investigate  the  research  hypothesis  were  selected  sample  of  fourth-grade  students of the  department  of physics at the univers

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