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Showing posts with label #thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #thanksgiving. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Read between the lines


Example 1:

Will: Mary won’t return my calls.  I’m not sure if she’s sad or sick.
Heather: Did anything happen? 
Will: I told her I liked her as a girlfriend, and she just disappeared.  I’m not sure why she won’t return my phone calls.
Heather: You have to read between the lines Will.  I don’t think she likes you the same way, and she’s trying to show you by staying away.


Example 2:

Mark: I can’t understand what the point of this statement is.  I can understand the words and content, but not the main idea.
Alice: Sometimes you have to read between the lines to understand what someone is trying to tell you.
Mark: What do you mean?
Alice: Well, sometimes things have a hidden meaning or implied meaning.  Look for clues.

Explanation:
  
Read between the lines means to look for a the meaning of something hidden in a statement.

Visit our website: languagesystems.edu 


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

To gobble (something) up/down


Context #1:

Kirk: We gotta leave soon if we're going to make the play.
Jake: I just made dinner.
Kirk: Then let's gobble it up; we have to leave in 10 minutes.
Jake: Ugh. I shouldn't have bothered making anything nice.
Kirk: Sorry, but I told you we had these tickets for tonight.
Jake: I know.

Meaning: The word "gobble" is an English onomatopoeia that is used to describe the sound a turkey makes (Onomatopoeias are words like "bark" and "bang" that imitate sounds). But the expression "gobble up" means to eat very quickly, usually because the person is in a hurry or very hungry.  In the above example, Kirk says they need to "gobble up" their dinner because they need to leave for a play. Paradoxically, "Gobble" can be used with the prepositions "up" or "down" and have the exact same meaning, as in this next example:


Context #2:

Jean: This birthday party is a disaster!
Will: Why? The kids seem to be having fun.
Jean: I just put out the pizza, and they gobbled it all down in 5 minutes. They want more, but that's everything I ordered.
Will: Can't you order more?
Jean: It'll take at least half an hour to get here.
Will: Well, let's serve the cake then. Maybe they'll fill up on that.

http://languagesystems.edu/