reference and practice Second Edition Intermediate 62 units of vocabulary reference and practice Self-study and classroom use Second Edition Intermediate Michael McCarthy Felicity O'Dell w,. CAMBRIDGE ;:: UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 4843/24, 2nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi - 110002, India 79 Anson Road , #06-04/ 06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge Un ive rsity Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University's mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learn ing and research at the highest international levels of excellence.org Information on this title: www.org/ elt © Cambridge University Press 2017 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2002 Second Edition 2017 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1110 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in Dubai by Oriental Press A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-131-6629888 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables and other factual information given in-this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. Contents Acknowledgements 3 m Communication 1: words and language Using this book 4 m Communication 2: expressing yourself Learning about idioms m Life and experience: proverbs D What are idioms? m Memory II Using your dictionary Idioms from the topic area of. Idioms to talk about.
m Time 1: the past and the future D Happiness and sadness m Time 2: clocks and frequency II Anger m The elements D Knowing and understanding m Colour a Experience and perception m Clothes D Success and failure III Games and sport D Having problems m Animals 1: describing people u Dealing with problems m Animals 2: describing situations m Power and authority m Weapons and war m Structuring and talking about arguments GiiJ Food ID Conversational responses m Roads m Praise and criticism m Houses and household objects ID Opinions on people and actions m Nature m Behaviour and attitudes m Boats and sailing Ill Reacting to what others say m Science, technology and machines m Danger m Music and theatre m Effort Idioms using these keywords: OJ Necessity and desirability m Finger, thumb, hand m Probability and luck m Foot, heel, toe m Social status GD Bones, shoulder, arm, leg m Human relationships Im) Head m Size and position m Face, hair, neck, chest fD Money m Eyes m Work m Ear, lips, mouth, nose, teeth, tongue fll Speed, distance and intensity m Heart English Idioms in Use Intermediate 1 m Brain, mind, blood and guts m Ground ID Back m Similes and idioms with like and as m Long Key 130 m Line m Act, action, activity Phonemic symbols 164 cm Good and bad Index 165 2 English Idioms in Use Intermediate Acknowledgements Sabina Ostrowska wrote two new units for the Second Edition: Unit 35, Clothes, and Unit 46, Music and theatre. The publishers would like to thank Sabina for her contribution to this edition. The authors and publishers acknowledge the following sources of copyright material and are grateful for the permissions granted. While every effort has been made, it has not always been possible to identify the sources of all the material used, or to trace all copyright holders.
If any omissions are brought to our notice, we will be happy to include the appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting & in the next update to the digital edition, as applicable. Key: BL= Below Left, BR= Below Right, C = Centre, CL= Centre Left, CR= Centre Right, TR= Top Right, TL= Top Left. Photographs All the photographs are sourced from Getty Images. 10: PhotoAlto/Sandro Di Carlo Darsa/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images Plus; p.
12: Klubovy/iStock/ Getty Images Plus; p. 20: PhotoAlto/Michele Constantini/PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections; p. 22: Jason Homa/Blend Images; p. 26: Blend Images - JGI/Jamie Grill/Brand X Pictures; p.
38: Ma-Ke/iStock/Getty Images Plus; p. 40 (CL): Michael Blann/lconica; p. 40 (C): Peathegee Inc/Blend Images; p. 40 (TR): Nick Dolding/lconica; p.
40 (BR): Drbimages/iStock/Getty Images Plus; p. 41: Ryuhei Shindo/DigitalVision; p. 44: James Kang/EyeEm; p. 74 (photo 3): Shannon Fagan/The Image Bank; p.
54 (TR): BJ I/Lane Oatey; p. 54 (C): Mark Scott/The Image Bank; p. 54 (BR): DreamPictures/Vstock/Blend Images; p. 74 (photo 1): Daly and Newton/OJO Images; p.
74 (photo 2): Compassionate Eye Foundation/ DigitalVision; p. 74 (photo 4) : Rick Gomez/Blend Images/Getty Images Plus; p. 74 (photo 5): Yagi Studio/DigitalVision; p. 74 (pocket) : Peter Dazeley/Photographer's Choice; p.
75 (photo 1): Robert Chlopas/iStock/Getty Images Plus; p. 75 (photo 3): AnnBaldwin/iStock/Getty Images Plus; p. 75 (photo 4): Gary Waters/Ikon Images; p. 88 (TR) : Matto353/iStock/ Getty Images Plus; p.
88 (CR) : Peter Chadwick LRPS/Moment; p. 97 (photo 1): Fgorgun/E+/Getty Images; p. 97 (photo 2) : Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury/OJO+; p. 97 (photo 3): roibu/iStock/Getty Images Plus; p.
97 (photo 4) : Due Franc;oise/Sygma; p. 104: Michael Blann/Stone; p. 124: wasantistock/istock/Getty Images Plus. 1llustrations Christopher Flint (Lemonade Illustration): pp.
14, 17, 53, 101 and 125; 419 Ludmila (KJA Artists): pp. 10, 13, 29, 35, 51, 54, 65, 80, 86, 95 and 107; John Lund (Beehive Illustration): pp. 8, 11, 25, 31, 36, 55, 69 and 81; Katie Mac (NB Illustration): pp. 22, 23, 33, 47, 63, 77, 105, 112, 114 and 118; 302 Martina (KJA Artists): pp.
English Idioms in Use Intermediate 3 Using this book Why was this book written? It was written to help you improve your knowledge of idioms in English. Idioms are fixed expressions whose meaning is not immediately obvious from looking at the individual words in the idiom. You will come across a great many idioms when you listen to and read English. So it is important that you learn about the meanings of idioms and about how they are used.
You can use this book either with a teacher or for self-study. We wanted to encourage language learners to have a balanced approach to idioms in English. Sometimes in the past, teachers used to argue that it was a waste of time for learners to study idioms as they might start using them in an inaccurate or unsuitable way. But idioms are in such widespread use that it is inappropriate to ignore them.
This book focuses just on those idioms which the modern student needs to know and it aims to provide the information and practice which will help you understand and use them correctly. How were the idioms in the book selected? There are a great many idioms in English, but some of them sound rather old-fashioned or are not very widely used. The idioms which are worked on in this book were mainly selected from those identified as significant based on computer searches of huge language databases: the CAN CODE corpus of spoken English, developed at the University of Nottingham in association with Cambridge University Press, and the Cambridge International Corpus of written and spoken English (now known as the Cambridge International Corpus). These databases show us how the idioms have actually been used by native speakers of English in conversations, newspapers, novels, and many other contexts.
The idioms selected are all also to be found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 4th Edition where additional examples and usage notes will also be found. You can search this dictionary on line by going to the following website: http://dictionary.org How is the book organised? The book has 62 two-page units. The left-hand page presents the idioms that are worked on in the unit. You will usually find an explanation of the meaning of each idiom, an example of it in use and, where appropriate, any special notes about its usage.
The right-hand page checks that you have understood the information on the left-hand page by giving you a series of exercises that practise the material just presented. The exercises pay particular attention to checking your understanding of the idioms and how they are used because this is more important for most learners than being able to actively use the idioms. The units are organised in three sections: Idioms to talk about. which groups idioms according to the topic area that they are used to talk about.
Thus, be snowed under [have an enormous amount of work to do] is included in Unit 25, Work. Idioms from the topic area of. which groups idioms according to the image they are based on. Thus, hit the roof [react in a very angry way] is included in Unit 42, Houses and household objects.
Idioms using these keywords which groups idioms according to keywords in them. For example, Unit 50 deals with a set of idioms based on the word head. The book also has a key to all the exercises and an index which lists the 1,000 idioms we deal with and indicates the units where they can each be found. 4 English idioms in Use Intermediate How should I use this book? The first two units of the book, Unit 1, What are idioms? and Unit 2, Using your dictionary are introductory units.
It is strongly recommended that you work through these units first. After that, you may work on the units in any order that suits you. What else do I need in order to work with this book? You need a notebook or file in which you can write down the idioms that you study in this book as well as any others that you come across elsewhere. You also need to have access to a good dictionary.
We strongly recommend the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary as this gives exactly the kind of information that you need to have about idioms. Your teacher, however, may also be able to recommend other dictionaries that you will find useful. So, we hope that this book will 'shed light' on all you need to know about English idioms (see Unit 9) and that, by the time you finish the units, you'll be saying: 'English idioms? A piece of cake!' (see Unit 18). English Idioms in Use Intermediate 5 1 What are idioms? Idioms and meaning Idioms are expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words.
For example, the idiom drive someone round the bend means make someone angry or frustrated, but we cannot know this just by looking at the words. The best way to understand an idiom is to see it in context. If someone says: That noise is driving me round the bend! It's so annoying! then the context and common sense tells us that drive round the bend means something different from driving a car round a curve in the road. The context tells us the noise is annoying and that it's having an effect on the person hearing it.