I/Choose the correct answer

1."A bit" means ___.

a. some thing to eat

b. to help someone

c. a small amount

2."About time" means ___.

a. at the right time

b. soon

c. at last

3."Across the board" means ___.

a. everyone or everything is included

b. to travel between countries

c. uninteresting

4.To "act up" means ___.

a. to share an idea

b. to behave badly

c. to pretend to be rich

5.A man "after my own heart" means ___.

a. liking the same things as me

b. looks like me

c. follows me

6."Against the clock" means ___.

a. a new record

b. a test of speed or time

c. an impossible task

7."All along" means ___.

a. all the time

b. to agree

c. altogether

8."All hours" means ___.

a. at regular times

b. at irregular times

c. every hour

9."Along in years" means ___.

a. getting old

b. getting tired

c. becoming successful

10."And then some" means ___.

a. not many

b. and only a few

c. and a lot more

II/Say whether the idioms in the following sentences are used correctly or incorrectly

1. To bear fruit means to have a lot of children

2. If you want to get browned off, you have to lie in the sun all day

3. He is very rich. He has ten servants and lives with his wife and two children in an ivory tower

4. I'll only buy the dog if it's house-trained

5. He was a very good pianist. He was so light-fingered

Lesson 2

I. Choose the correct answer

1. A "babe in the woods" means ___.

a. somone who cuts trees

b. someone who is young

c. someone who is innocent

2. To "back down" means ___.

a. to give up a claim

b. to sit down

c. to fight for something

3. To "back out" means ___.

a. to support someone

b. to be trapped

c. to get out of an agreement

4. A "bad trip" means ___.

a. to lose money

b. an unpleasant drug experience

c. to be unsuccesful

5. "He didn't bat an eye" means the same as ___.

a. he didn't see

b. he wasn't happy

c. he didn't show surprise

6. To "bear in mind" means ___.

a. to forget something

b. to be crazy

c. to remember something

7. To "beat around the bush" means ___.

a. to not know

b. to avoid a question

c. to go on a hike

8. To "beef up" means ___.

a. to go crazy

b. to have fun

c. to make something stronger

9. "Behind the scenes" means ___.

a. in a different place

b. privately

c. in a difficult position

10. "Below the belt" means ___.

a. good

b. secretly

c. unfairly

II. Choose the numbers which best completes each sentence

1. If you are dressed up to the ___ , you are wearing fancy clothes.

2. If you are at ___ , you are confused and don't know what to do.

3. A ___ letter word is one that is considered rude or vulgar.

4. If someone talks very fast, they talk ___ to the dozen.

5. If you understand immediately what someone is trying to say, they might say to you "Got it in ___ ."

6. If you begin to draw conclusions about something, you put two and ___ together.

7. Someone who looks out for number ___ is someone who only thinks about his or her interests.

8. The basics of education are sometimes called "the ___ R's."

9. If a man hasn't shaved for a day or two, you say he has a ___ o'clock shadow.

10. Things that are very cheap and common are ___ a penny.

Lesson 3

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I. Choose the correct answer:

1. To "call it a day" means ___.

a. to quit

b. it becomes evening

c. to say good morning

2. To "call the tune" means ___.

a. to sing a song

b. to give orders

c. to give advice

3. To "carry off" means ___.

a. to move

b. to kill

c. to drop

4. To put the "cart before the horse" means ___.

a. to plan ahead

b. that you can't do something

c. to do things in the wrong order

5. To "catch on" means ___.

a. to understand

b. to be punished

c. to grab something

6. To "be caught short" means ___.

a. to be in an embarrassing situation

b. to take a short sleep

c. not to have enough of something when needed

7. "Cheap skate" means ___.

a. a winter sports activity

b. someone who doesn't spend much money

c. something that isn't expensive

8. To "check up" means ___.

a. to search

b. to investigate

c. to make a mark to show something has been counted

9. To "cheer up" means ___.

a. to become happy

b. to become sad

c. to become lost

10. "Chicken feed" means ___.

a. a lot of food

b. a small amount of money

c. A group of people gathering together

II. Match up the bold idioms (1-7) with the correct sentences (a-f)

1. You did it. You have to face the music.

2. Yes. You hit the nail on the head.

3. You two don't see eye to eye.

4. You have to learn it by heart.

5. You are an old hand at teaching.

6. That's great! You keep everything under your thumb.

7. You don't want to stick your neck out, do you?

a. You have to memorize it.

b. You're experienced.

c. You have control of the situation.

d. You don't want to take the risk.

e. You have to accept the consequences of you actions.

f. You don't agree with each other.

g. You're absolutely right.

Lesson 4

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I. Fill in the missing words from the sentences below. Choose from the following, using plural forms where necessary.

bird - bull - cat - cow - dog - donkey - fish - goat - goose - horse - lion - pig - rat.

1. After years of communiting from Brighton to London, he decided to get out of the _______ race and buy a small farm in Wales.

2. When their grandfather died, Tom and his sister got the _______'s share of his money.

3. That's the last time I invite Susan for a meal. She really made a _______ of herself last night.

4. You're upset now, I know. But you'll soon forget her - after all, there are plenty more _____ in the sea.

5. She loved tennis and could watch it until the _______ came home.

6. Although he had only known her for 2 weeks he decided to take the ______ by the horns and ask her to marry him.

7. Turning up half an hour late for the interview really cooked his _____ .

8. You're flogging a dead _____ trying to get Peter to change his mind!

9. We were hoping to keep the wedding a secret, by my mother soon let the _____ out of the bag.

10. I don't think I'd recognise her now, it's ______ 's years since I last saw her.

11. Harold has really gone to the ______ since his wife died. Looking him at now, it's hard to believe he was once a successful barrister.

12. It's not that I mind giving her a lift home every Tuesday, but what gets my ________ is the fact that she's never once offered to pay for the petrol.

13. As I had to go to Swansea on business, I decided to kill two _______ with one stone and visit my old school as well.

II. Choose the meaning of the idioms in bold:

1. Wow! It's raining cats and dogs today! I wish I'd brought my umbrella to school!

a. I forgot my umbrella today.

b. It's raining heavily.

c. Cats and dogs are falling from the sky.

2. When I told my mom I would be home around 2 am, she had a cow!

a. My mom bought a baby cow.

b. My mom is really strange.

c. My mom was really upset.

3. Jean: How did you know it was my birthday today?

Susan: Oh, a little birdie told me!

a. Jean told Susan it was her birthday.

b. An unnamed person told Susan about Jean's birthday.

c. Susan told Jean it was her birthday.

4. Frank: Why didn't your brother ride the roller coaster with us?

Sam: Oh, he's such a scaredy cat! He won't get on any fast ride.

a. Sam's brother is afraid to ride the roller coaster.

b. Sam's brother is a cat.

c. Sam's brother didn't go to the roller coaster.

5. When the telephone salesman told me I could buy some concert tickets for only $10.00 if I gave him my credit card number, it seemed a little fishy to me, so I hung up the phone.

a. I thought the telephone salesman smelled like a fish and I didn't like that.

b. I thought the phone salesman was a dangerous fish and he scared me.

c. I thought the phone salesman was dishonest and I felt suspicious of him.

6. I never learned how to use a computer, so I lost my job to a new employee. It's a dog-eat-dog world.

a. Only the strong or the best survive.

b. Dogs are eating dogs at the office.

c. Dogs like to eat dogs for lunch.

I. Fill in the missing words from the sentences below. Choose from the following, using plural forms where necessary.

arm- blood- bone- breast- chest- finger- foot- hair- heart- mouth

1. There's something wrong somewhere. I can't put my _____ on what it's exactly, but something just doesn't feel rịght

2. The cruel way some owners treat their pets makes my ______ boil.

3. 'Hurry up, Dorothy! The taxi's waiting!'

'All right, keep your _______ on! I'm coming.'

4. Getting a problem off your ______ is the first stage to being able to solve it.

5. She decided to make a clean ______ of everything and confess that she was the one who had stolen the money.

6. You'd better be careful with what you say to Samantha. You know how sensitive she is to criticism- she takes everything to ________.

7. I think there's going to be trouble at the meeting tonight; I can feel it in my _______.

8. David and the new boss seem to have got off on the wrong _______. Poor David! There go his chances for promtion.

9. Stop putting words into my ______ ! I never said opera was boring, I just said I preferred musicals, that's all.

10. The viewers were up in _____ when the television station announced it was going to change the time of the evening news broadcast from 9 o'clock to 9.30.

II. Match up the idioms in bold (1-9) with the correct plain English below (a-i)

1. He was all ears when his boss talked.

2. He is a chip off the old block.

3. He is thick in the head.

4. The bank robbers were armed to the teeth.

5. His comments threw a wet blanket on the discussion.

6. They were beat after three days of hard work.

7. Jack was hard up to pay his rent.

8. The storm left them all in the same boat.

9. The house fire meant we had to start from scratch

a. discouraged

b. exhausted

c. heavily armed

d. stupid

e. like his father

f. listening carefully

g. the beginning

h. had no money

i. all in the same situation