Shoes New shoes can be uncomfortable for a few days. Then they become softer and begin to take on the shape of our feet. After a while, putting our feet into them is like shaking hands with two old friends. Several expressions in English are about our shoes. One such expression is the shoe is on the other foot. It means that the situation is completely turned around. It is as if you have traded shoes with someone else. The expression is often used when two people seem to exchange the situations with each other. For example, you might
Dying is a terrible thing, something that should not happen to anyone. Yet the word “dead” has given American English some of its liveliest expressions. One of the first of these expressions seems to have begun in England more them 600 years ago.
EGG The expression, to lay an egg, means to fail badly, completely. The phrase comes from the ancient English game of cricket. A player who failed to score was said to make a duck’s egg, because zero was shaped like a duck’s egg. In the words of one British journal, "Out of the eleven Surrey batsmen who played against Nots yesterday, no less than five were credited with duck’s eggs". The phrase crossed the ocean and joined the American game of baseball, where zero was called a goose egg. From this failure to make a score was born another expression for almost any kind
Goat The goat is an ancient creature that has done much for man: Providing milk, meat, cheese and other good and useful things. Still, it has been kicked, beaten and condemned as a creature of dirt. But it continues to serve mankind in many useful ways, both large and small, even in the way of language. For example, some men wear goatees, thin whiskers that hang down from their chins like the whiskers on a gost.
ColdFor centuries, the body’s blood hasbeen mixed closely with emotions. Peoplewho show no human emotions or feelings,for example, are said to be cold-blooded.Cold-blooded people act in cruel ways.They may do brutal things to others andnot by accident, for example, a newspapersays the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. The killer murdered some-one not in self defence or because he wasreacting to anger or fear. He seemed to killfor no reason, and with no emotion, as iftaking someone’s life meant nothing."Cold"can affect other parts of
