On the Effect of Idioms Comprehension of ESL College Students

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On the Effect of Idioms Comprehension of ESL College Students

National Taiwan Normal University

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects involved in idioms comprehension of ESL college students in Taiwan. The think-aloud (TA) protocol was applied and four students were recruited to verbally report their thoughts as they arrived at the figurative meanings of idioms. The testing material was adopted from Cooper’s (1999) framework in which 20 idioms were included and classified into three categories: standard, conversational, slang. Results showed a tendency for L2 learners in using the linguistic context to deduce meanings of idioms. In addition to findings in Coopers’ study, it is found that L2 learners made image associations to grasp meanings of idioms. Moreover, both positive and negative transfer effect appeared in accordance with idioms with correspondence between L1 and L2. Among the testing material, the conversational type presented more difficulties for L2 learners and it was suggested that the colloquial usage usually involved cultural connotations of which L2 learners lacked. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the context was a clue commonly used by nearly all L2 learners, paralleling the results in Cooper (1999).

Key word: idiom comprehension, think-aloud, strategies, L2

Introduction

An idiom is a combination of lexical items and has a meaning which is distinct

from the individual lexical items and this idiomatic meaning is usually understood

based on the conventional use of speakers in the speech community. Gibbs’ study

stated that idioms are found in all languages and some types of idioms are

culture-specific. (From Liu, 2008) Stein and Su (1988:444) defined an idiom briefly

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example, the meaning of the idiom kick the bucket cannot be derived from meanings

of kick and bucket. That is, the figurative meaning ‘to die’ has nothing to do with kick

or bucket in its literal sense. Gibbs (1987) classifies idioms into transparent and

obscure according to compositionality; for example, lay one's cards on the table

meaning ‘to reveal the secret’ is not a transparent idiom since its idiomatic meaning

can be predicted by the lexical items. There is a close relationship between the literal

meaning and figurative meaning in transparent idioms. In contrast, the obscure idioms

refer to idioms in which the relationship between literal meaning and figurative

meaning is obscure. To kick the bucket is one of the obscure idioms. Irujo (1986a)

pointed out that the non-literalness property would result in difficulties for ESL

learners in learning idioms. In addition, idioms are formed by cultural background as

well as commonly shared experience; learning idioms in fact is an essential but

complex task for ESL students who lack of cultural references. According to Gibbs

(1995), human’s preexisting metaphorical concepts partly motivated the figurative

meanings of idioms. Additionally, the conceptual knowledge is sometimes

cultural-specific since some conceptual metaphorical links have been found to be

shaped by particular cultures. (Liu, 2008)

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects involved in idioms

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L1 transfer effect. The research questions are as follows:

1. What kind of strategies would ESL learners employ to comprehend idioms? 2. Is there an L1 transfer effect on idiom comprehension?

3. What type of idioms would be relatively difficult to comprehend?

Literature Review

Previous studies on idioms mainly concerned with L1 idiom processing (Gibbs

1986). Until recent, L2 idioms processing and learning have been explored in two

aspects: first, the effect of L1 transfer in comprehending L2 idioms (Irujo 1986). In

her study, the advanced Spanish learners of English were investigated. The idiom

items were categorized into three types in terms of the idiom similarity between L1

and L2: identical, similar, and different1

As for comprehension strategies employed by learners, Cooper (1999) conducted

a study by means of think-aloud protocols to gather learners’ thoughts during idioms. Identical idioms were the easiest for

L2 learners to understand and produce since one-to-one correspondence was found

between L1 and L2. The result showed that L1 knowledge may assist L2 learners in

comprehending idioms which are identical and similar to L1 equivalent. Apart from

these two types, she pointed out different idioms which have no similar L1

equivalents were the hardest to understand and produce.

1 _{Identical idioms refers to some of the idioms in L2 had first language equivalents. E.g. To burn the}

candle at both ends (English) equals to, la zhu liang tou shao (蠟燭兩頭燒)in Chinese.

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comprehending idioms. He investigated the on-line processing strategies by eighteen

nonnative speakers of English with varied different nationalities. Eight major

strategies were identified and used by L2 learners: the most frequently used was

guessing from context, others were discussing and analyzing the idioms, using the

literal meaning; using background knowledge; referring to an L1 idioms, requesting

information; repeating or paraphrasing the idiom.

In addition, a number of studies investigating the idioms comprehension by EFL

Chinese learners have been developed recently (Chen, 2004; Huang, 2007; Wang &

Zhang, 2006; Zuo, 2008). Chen (2004) studied the comprehension of English color

idioms by Chinese EFL learners. The result showed that strategy use varied with

idiom types; that is, more difficult the idioms are, more strategies are adopted by

learners. Also, the advanced learners tended to use more diversified strategies to

figure out the meanings. Zuo (2008) investigated how Chinese EFL learners

comprehend unfamiliar English idioms in reading and what strategies they employ in

the process. The results showed that the idiom comprehension performance and

strategy use were influenced by both idiom types and learners’ L2 proficiency.

Based on the empirical studies on L2 idiom processing, the present study

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subjects in previous research (Cooper 1999)2. The test material, the Idiom

Recognition Test (IRT) is adopted from Cooper’s study to see whether there is any

difference based on subjects’ learning background. In addition, since production may

yield more difficulties than comprehension for L2 learners who possess no cultural

reference, it is only comprehension being investigated in this study.

Methodology

Subject

A total of four Taiwanese college students were recruited for the study. Two of

them (subjects A and B) were English major, while the others were non-English

majors. Their average age was 19 years old. Their learning background was stated as

in Table 1.

Table 1. English education background

Subject Age English proficiency level (GEPT) A 18 Intermediate level

B 18 Intermediate level C 20 Elementary level D 19 Elementary level

None of them has lived in the English-speaking country. With regard to the

English proficiency level, subjects A and B passed the intermediate level of General

English Proficiency Test (abbreviated as GEPT). In the GEPT test, each level was

2

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administered in a two-stage process. At the first stage, reading and listening ability

were examined. The second stage was administered only when one passed the first

stage: at the second stage, speaking and writing ability were examined. Subjects C

and D passed the elementary level but only passed the first stage of the intermediate

level. Therefore, the proficiency level between two groups was differentiated.

Think-aloud Protocols

Think-aloud protocol (TA) was initially a method of direct observation,

developed by Newell and Simon, to investigate cognitive problem-solving strategies,

such as reading.

Think-aloud protocols (TA) have been widely used to explore L1 and L2

students’ cognitive processes in reading research. For these studies using TA protocols,

the aim is to develop reading strategies (e.g. Anderson, 1991; Olshavsky, 1977), and

to discover or describe strategies used in reading comprehension tests (e.g. Anderson,

Bachman, Perkins & Cohen, 1991). In order to investigate the comprehension

processes, the think-aloud (TA) protocol is applied in the study. During the process of

the task, subjects are asked to verbalize their thoughts while reading every stimulus

sentence and idiom. Researchers are able to gather subjects’ thoughts and analyze the

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Procedures

Participants were given the Idiom Recognition Test (IRT), which is adopted from

Cooper’s (1999) study. There were 20 idiom items selected from A Dictionary of

American Idioms (Makkai, Boatner, & Gates, 1995), and categorized into three types

based on the dictionary’s categorization: Standard English, Informal, and Slang (as

illustrated in Table 2.). Each idiom is given in a set of context as an aid to

comprehend the meanings. Subjects were given the instruction right before the IRT is

taken. The instruction provides information concerning the main idea of the

Think-aloud method, and guided questions to facilitate their thoughts in taking IRT.

Subjects were allowed to verbalize the thoughts in their mother tongue (Mandarin

Chinese) during the entire process.3 The data were recorded and transcribed as soon

as the TA-protocols finished.

Table 2. Categorization of idioms in the Idiom recognition test (IRT)

Idioms on IRT, by Level of Discourse

Standard English (SE; formal) Informal or colloquial (conversational) Slang (informal) To burn the candle at both

ends

To see eye to eye To suffer from burnout To tighten one’s belt To roll up one’s sleeves

To pull the wool over someone’s eyes

To have a chip on one’s shoulder

To have something in the bag To have a green thumb

To have a big mouth What’s cooking? To get sacked To be chicken feed

3 _{For example, “…big mouth…大嘴巴就是跟中文的一樣…就是…就是很容易露出風聲的}

38 To see things through

rose-colored glasses To be a little frog in a big pond

To stir up a hornet’s nest

To rob the cradle

To be up the creek without a paddle

To let the cat out of the bag To get off the ground

Results and Discussion

Q1: What kind of strategies would ESL learners employ to comprehend idioms?

In the study, we performed the analysis qualitatively; the quantitative analysis

will also be given to indicate the idioms which resulted in more difficulties for

subjects. The description of L2 comprehension strategies in Cooper (1999) is adopted

as a framework for identifying the strategies used by the subjects as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Comprehension strategy and description

Strategy Description

The first phase: Preparatory

Repeating or paraphrasing the idiom (abbreviated as RP)

repeating the idiom without giving interpretation

Requesting information (RI) requesting the unknown lexical items Discussing and analyzing the idiom

(DA)

discussing the idiom without guessing at the meaning

The second phase: Guessing (our focus in this study)

Guessing from context (GC) obtaining the meanings from guessing the context Using the literal meaning (LM) using the literal meaning of the idiom as a key to

its figurative meaning

Using background knowledge (BK) using one’s background knowledge to figure out the meanings of idioms

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A total of seven strategies are listed in Table 3; we paid further attention to the

second phase since the first phase, preparatory strategies, was used “to gain more

time before uttering a guess, to clarify the knowledge on the expression” (Cooper

1999), not on comprehension. In this section, strategies adopted by the subjects to

interpret the figurative meanings are discussed with authentic examples.

From the verbal reports transcription, it is revealed that the most frequently used

strategy was guessing the context (GC), indicating that contextual cues virtually

played an important and supportive role for L2 learners to make a clear picture of

idiom meanings.

Example 1: (Guessing from context)

Stimulus sentence: By mistake, Kay let the cat out of the bag when she revealed the

surprise. What does to let the cat out of the bag mean?

Participant: 意外地…Kate 讓她的貓跑出來…當她...揭露了一個驚喜…讓她的貓 跑出來是什麼意思…喔…可能是破梗的意思吧…喔…在他前面有意外的…後面 又有說他揭露了一個驚喜….可能他要揭露這個驚喜之前他不小心把她要做的 事，或者是她要說的東西說出來，已經事先破梗了。

‘Accidently, Kate let her cat out/ when she / reveal the surprise / oh / it might have the

meanings of “po geng” / before this idiom / by mistake / and after it says she revealed a surprise/ maybe before she revealed the surprise, she by accident tell what she’s going to do or say.’

Subjects double-checked the words appeared before or after the idiom to make

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guessing from context strategy. In addition to guessing from context, using literal

meaning is employed in the second rank. As stated by Cooper (1999), subjects

employ this strategy by interpreting the literal sense of the idiom expression; the

application of the LM strategy is demonstrated below.

Example 2: (Using literal meaning)

Stimulus sentence: Mother wants to buy a new house in the country. Father sees eye to eye with her. What does it mean to see eye to eye?

Participant

‘Mother wants to buy a new house in the country and then father see…/ Does this

mean father have an eye contact?...see eye to eye…eye contact…oh! Maybe it means having an agreement on it? ... having an agreement on … eye to eye in the literal sense, that means having an agreement.’

: 媽媽想在鄉下買一間新房子然後爸爸… see…爸爸跟他眼神交會 嗎?...see eye to eye…眼神交會…喔可能是表示贊同的意思嗎?...表示贊同的意思. 字面上意思眼睛對眼睛那應該是表示贊同的意思。

Initially, the subject would repeat the idiom and interpret the literal meaning of

each component of the idiom and subsequently, the figurative meaning is achieved. In

addition, an L1 equivalent idiom is a useful cue in attaining figurative meanings.

Among these 20 idiom items, a number of them have an identical or similar

correspondence to the mother tongue. Subjects who employed L1 strategy initially

interpreted the literal meanings which reminded them of the expressions in L1.

Consequently, a tendency was found that the L1 strategy is always carried out with

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next section. Besides, there is only one case using background knowledge strategy in

which the subject reports that the idiom has been learnt from the English class

(Example 3).

Example 3: (Using background knowledge)

Stimulus sentence: People say that Jennifer can keep any plant alive with her green thumb. What does green thumb mean?

Participant

‘eh…People say that she…she can keep any plant alive …ohh! This means that she

has a good gardening…gardening skill…and this was what our English teacher mentioned last time in the class…The teacher loved to talk about…idioms.’

: eh…大家都說…她…她可以讓植物活起來…哦…這個是她很有那個 園藝的那個什麼…園藝的本領…還有這就是上上堂我們英文課老師有講到…老 師很愛講一些…就是俗語。

In addition to strategies identified by Cooper (1999), a novel strategy was

observed from the subjects’ verbal reports. Subjects made use of their imagination to

comprehend the idiom meanings visually. That is, making image association as a

strategy was helpful for reading comprehension. For example:

Example 4: (Making image association)

Stimulus sentence: The researcher had to roll up his sleeves to get the proposal in on time. What does to roll up his sleeves mean?

Participant: …(Repeating the sentence)…什麼是sleeves? ‘What do sleeves mean?’ Researcher: 袖子

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‘um…proposal…proposal…oh!oh! when…in order to get the proposal on time…that

is…roll up his sleeves…means starting to work…very vivid image…means starting to work’.

We identified this as making image association (IA) based on the reflection of

“vivid image”. According to Gibbs (1990), he discovered that idioms are not “dead”

metaphor with their meanings being arbitrary determined; instead, meanings are

motivated by speakers’ tacit knowledge of the conceptual metaphors underlying the

meanings of these figurative phrases. Thus, the IA strategy was used for specific

idiom items involving bodily experience (e.g. sleeves) so that the subject was able to

associate the words with the image.

With regard to the strategy coding, mostly subjects would employ two strategies

at a time in processing the meanings. Among the diversified strategies, some

strategies might serve as a key whereas some might be an aid to confirm the default

guessing. As we have just mentioned, there was a tendency when subjects refer to an

L1 equivalent idiom, the literal meaning was also taken into consideration at the same

time. Another double-coding case such as GC strategy accompanied by the LM

strategy was found. Since the coding cannot be easily determined by their response,

we concluded that two strategies were employed simultaneously to arrive at the

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Example 5: (Double-coding: GC with LM strategies

Stimulus sentence: We decided that Molly was a bad worker and that she would have to get sacked. What does to get sacked mean?

Participant: 我們決定…我們覺得…我們覺得Molly是個不好的工作者…還有she would have to get sack…sack是…?

Researcher: 大袋子 Participant

‘then she might be…possibly it means that she get a sack to wrap up and go home, probably meaning being laid off, the context stated…Molly is…the point is ‘a bad worker’…maybe getting a sack means to be laid off.’

: 然後她可能要…她要拿了一個大袋子可能是說他要打包回家了，可 能是被解雇的意思，前面說Molly是…重點應該是說不好的職員…可能要拿一個 大袋子就是被解雇的意思。

Q2: What type of idioms would be relatively difficult to comprehend?

In addition to qualitative analysis, the effective strategies and the correctness rate

are summarized in Table 4:

Table 4. Effective strategies used by four subjects

Idioms A B C D

1. to burn the candle at both ends

LM+L1 LM+L1 LM+L1 LM+L1

2. to pull the wool over one’s eyes

GC LM+GC Incorrect Incorrect

3. to have a chip on one’s shoulder

GC (2) Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect

4. to see eye to eye with LM Incorrect LM GC

5. to be a big mouth LM+L1 LM+L1 GC+L1 LM+L1

6. to suffer from burnout GC LM GC+LM LM

7. to be in the bag GC GC GC LM+L1

8. what’s cooking GC Incorrect GC Incorrect

44 11. to be up the creek without

the paddle

Incorrect Incorrect LM(2) LM+IA

12. to let the cat out of the bag GC GC GC GC 13. to get off the ground Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect GC+LM 14. to tighten one’s belt LM+L1 LM+L1 GC+LM Incorrect

15. to get sacked GC LM+GC GC+LM GC+LM

16. to roll up his sleeves GC GC+IA GC (2) GC+LM(IA) 17. to see things through

rose-colored glasses

GC+LM GC+LM

(BK)

GC Incorrect

18. a little frog in a big pond Incorrect GC Incorrect Incorrect

19. to be chicken feed GC+LM GC GC+LM GC+LM(2)

20. to stir up a hornet’s nest LM +GC Incorrect GC+LM GC+LM

Correctness rate 75% 70% 60% 60%

In the present study, four subjects were recruited, and once three out of four

subjects respond incorrectly to the same idiom, then the item was considered difficult

for comprehension. As stated in Table 4, the difficult idioms refer to (3) to have a chip

on one’s shoulder, (10) to rob the cradle, (13) to get off the ground, and (18) a little

frog in a big pond. These idioms were classified in the conversational category, and

thus we concluded that colloquial items would be difficult for them to comprehend,

since different cultural connotations were involved. For instance, a cultural history

behind the idiom to have a chip on one’s shoulder was that ‘in America, men in the

past sometimes balanced a small piece of wood on one’s shoulder in the hope that

someone would knock it off and give them an excuse to start a fight.’ (Makkai et al.,

1995) Subjects who had different cultural background would fail to achieve the

45 involved more difficulties for L2 learners.

In addition to that, it was found that idioms with unknown words might result in

the comprehension difficulty. For example, wool in to pull the wool over the eyes as

well as chip in to have a chip on one’s shoulder. All subjects request the information

of these lexical items; however, due to the lack of culture-specific background

knowledge, once meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary were given, they still cannot

figure out the figurative meanings.

Q3: Does L1 transfer effect involve in idioms comprehension?

According to Irujo (1986), L1 knowledge may assist L2 learners in comprehending idioms which are identical and similar to L1 equivalent. Results in the present study support Irujo’s propose in which positive transfer effect actually involve in idiom comprehension. Subjects comprehended idioms by referring to idioms which have correspondence to identical phrase expressions in Chinese.

Table 4. English – Chinese (and Southern-Min) Correspondence

1. to burn the candle at the both ends (SE idiom) is equal to 蠟燭兩頭燒 meaning ‘to be busy at many things at one time.’

2. to tighten one’s belt (SE idiom) corresponds to 縮緊褲帶 meaning ‘life is tough, people suffer from hunger or poverty.’

3. to have a big mouth (Slang idiom) corresponds to 大嘴巴 meaning ‘someone who talks too much.’

4. to have something in the bag (Conversational idiom) = 囊中之物 meaning ‘assured of a successful outcome.’

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one of the subject correspond to tighten one’s belt to Southern-Min 縖 褲 帶

(ha5-khoo3-tua3) which meant identical to Chinese and English. The example of

referring to L1 equivalent strategy is illustrated following:

Example 6: (Referring to L1 equivalent)

Stimulus sentence: Because Betsy cannot keep a secret, other people call her a big mouth. What does a big mouth mean?

Participant

‘big mouth…big mouth is identical to Chinese expression…that is…that means one

tend to easily reveal the message, talk a lot and gossip…’

: …big mouth…大嘴巴就是跟中文的依樣…就是….就是很容易露出風 聲的人,到處亂講…講八卦這樣。

Previous studies have indicated that “similar idioms were comprehended as well

as identical idioms, but production of similar idioms showed interference from the

first language.”(Irujo 1986) However, the present study showed that the similar idiom

might result in interference from L1. For instance, subject’s response to a little frog in

a big pond meaning ‘an unimportant person in a large group’ was interfered by the

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Example 7: (Interfering refer to L1 equivalent)

Stimulus sentence: Looking up at the sky can make you feel like a little frog in a big pond. What does a little frog in a big pond mean?

Participant

‘Oh!...(L1 equivalent “a frog in the well”) …because Chinese seems to have similar expression…(“a frog in the well”)…because the sky…is mentioned before, it means (“a frog in the well”).’

: 喔!..井底之蛙….因為中文好像也有這樣的講法….井底之蛙..因為前 面也有提到天空所以就是井底之蛙的意思。

The example showed a different result from Irujo’s conclusion in which it was

only the production of similar idiom that interference effect existed. In Chinese, jing

di zhi wa “a frog in the well” meaning “one who is narrow minded” which was

different from the expression of English “a little frog in a big pond” meaning “an

unimportant individual in a large organization”. The former meaning carried the

negative value whereas the latter meaning was neutral without semantic derogation. It

is concluded that in comprehending similar idiom, the L1 negative transfer is

expected.

The result in the present study was supported by the heuristic approach.

According to Cooper (1999), the heuristic approach was a L2 processing model

which was distinct from any well-known L1 idiom processing models; it stated that

L2 learners must develop heuristic as a procedure for solving the linguistic problem,

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Celik-Yazici (2004) discovered that GC strategy was the firstly strategy employed in

the heuristic model; that is, it was hypothesized that L2 learners would not adopt

other strategies until the use of contextual information failed to lead to a meaningful

interpretation. In the present study, the high frequency usage of GC strategy as well as

the evidence of double-coding corroborated Bulut & Celik-Yazici’s hypotheses.

Conclusion and Limitations

To conclude, this study looks into the effect of idiom comprehension for ESL

learners in Taiwan. It was found out that L2 learners tended to guess from context to

comprehend the unfamiliar idioms which is consistent with Cooper’s result. Generally

speaking, L2 learners sometimes use two strategies altogether to form the figurative

meanings of the idiom. What’s more in the analysis, the idioms involving unknown

vocabulary in conversational idiom type yielded more difficulties for L2 learners.

And, it was proven that L1 transfer effect indeed existed in idiom comprehension

once the one-to-one correspondence was found between L1 and L2. However, the L1

might also interfere when subjects comprehend the similar idiom, e.g. a little frog in a

big pond.

With regard to the effects on comprehension of idioms, the present study can be

modified and revised in several ways. Firstly, the number of subjects should be

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be sharply distinguished. Secondly, the test material can be composed in a different

way. The linguistic context of Cooper’s test material consists of a single sentence, in

which the information might not be enough for comprehension. Moreover, the

production of idiom should be investigated as well. Last but not the least, with regard

to the comparison between L1 and L2 idiom comprehension, English native speakers

can also be added as a control group in the future research.

References:

Block, E. (1986). The comprehension strategies of second language readers. TESOL

Quarterly, 20(3), 463-494.

Bulut, T. & Celik-Yazici, Y. (2004). Idiom processing in L2: Through rose-colored glassed. The Reading Matrix, 4, 105-116.

Chen, B. (2004). A study of L2 color idiom comprehension – Effects of type, proficiency, and context. Unpublished MA thesis. Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China.

Cooper, T. (1999). Processing of idioms by L2 learners of English. TESOL Quarterly,

33(2), 233-262.

Gibbs, R. W. (1987). Linguistic factors in children's understanding of idioms. Journal of Child Language, 14, 569-586.

Gibbs, R. W., Jr. (1995). Idiomaticity and human cognition. In M. Everhaert, E. J. vander Linden, A. Schenk, & R. Schreuder (Eds.), Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives (pp. 97-116). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Huang, L. (2007). Comprehension of L2 idioms by Chinese EFL learners – Effects of idiom type and proficiency level. CELEA Journal (Bimonthly), 30(2), 41-52.

Irujo, S. (1986a). Don’t put your leg in your mouth: transfer in the acquisition of idioms in a second language. TESOL Quarterly, 20(2), 287-301.

Irujo, S. (1986b). A piece of cake: Learning and teaching idioms. ELT Journal,40(3),

236-242.

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Makkai, A., Boatner, M.T., & Gates, J. E. (1995). A dictionary of American idioms (3rd ed.). Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series.

Wang, X. & Zhang, W. (2006). Strategy use in Chinese EFL learners processing of English idioms. CELEA Journal (Bimonthly), 29(4), 3-10.

Zuo. (2008). Comprehension of unfamiliar English idioms by Chinese EFL learners in reading. CELEA Journal, 31(3), 9-29.

APPENDIX A:

1. Mr. Carson works as a teacher all day and works in a factory at night. His wife says he is burning the candle at both ends.

What does it mean to be burning the candle at both ends?

2. The salesman sold Mrs. Smith a broken dishwasher. He pulled the wool over her eyes.

What does it mean to pull the wool over her eyes?

3. Billy often gets into fights with other kids at school. His mother says he has a chip on his shoulder.

What does it mean to have a chip on one’s shoulder?

4. Mother wants to buy a new house in the country. Father sees eye to eye with her. What does it mean to see eye to eye?

5. Because Betsy cannot keep a secret, other people call her a big mouth. What does a big mouth mean?

6. Pam needed a vacation because she was suffering from burnout. What does suffering from burnout mean?

7. After coming back from her interview, Stacy knew she had the job in the bag. What does in the bag mean?

8. After dinner, John would go over to the mall to see what’s cooking. What does what’s cooking mean?

9. People say that Jennifer can keep any plant alive with her green thumb. What does green thumb mean?

10. Robert knew that he was robbing the cradle by dating a sixteen-year-old girl. What does robbing the cradle mean?

11. If you procrastinate, you will find yourself up the creek without a paddle. What does up the creek without a paddle mean?

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13. Many small businesses can be successful once they get off the ground. What does to get off the ground mean?

14. After getting laid off from the pen factory, George had to tighten his belt. What does to tighten his belt mean?

15. We decided that Molly was a bad worker and that she would have to get sacked. What does to get sacked mean?

16. The researcher had to roll up his sleeves to get the proposal in on time. What does to roll up his sleeves mean?

17. Depressed people should look at the world through rose-colored glasses. What does rose-colored glasses mean?

18. Looking up at the sky can make you feel like a little frog in a big pond. What does a little frog in a big pond mean?

19. To some people, a thousand dollars is chicken feed. What does chicken feed mean?