Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. If someone is "on the ropes", he or she is in a situation of great difficulty or on the brink of failure or defeat. Why does this cliched expression mean this, however? More to the point, what are the specific ropes to which this phrase refers?
2. Winifred was ready to leave work and go home for the night. However, an elderly gentleman, the only customer remaining in the restaurant, refused to eat and drink any faster. In fact, he had just ordered some dessert. When she explained that the café was closed, he got angry and remarked that he had to eat a dessert because he did so every Tuesday evening in the 9:00 hour. Winifred returned to the kitchen, where she called the man an "old" what? What phrase might one use to refer to an elderly eccentric person?
3. Thaddeus and I were discussing a song we had recently heard and how amazed we were at its ability to affect our emotions so strongly. I hadn't realized his nine-year-old son Leroy was listening to our conversation until he remarked, "I think sometimes the most beautiful things aren't the things we can see". Thaddeus responded, "Out of the mouths of babes . . . ". What did he mean by this?
4. What idiomatic expression would you use to describe something impromptu, unconventional, unusual, or extraordinary?
5. According to an old expression, where is someone if he or she is being reprimanded by his or her employer, supervisor, or boss?
6. The "old guard" are those individuals within any society, institution, organization, business, political party, and so on who have long been devoted to their establishment and defend, maintain, and promote their establishment's traditions. From what source was the expression "old guard" derived?
7. To accomplish something in "one fell swoop" is to accomplish that action with quickness and quite often with savagery as well. The phrase's continued existence in the English language is credited to William Shakespeare, who either coined the expression or popularized it so that it began to appear with more frequency. However, in what play does the phrase first appear during a scene in which a supporting character discovers his family are dead?
8. Which cliched expression would someone use to suggest that a person's point of view or perspective changes when his or her own interest is affected or threatened?
9. What are you "over" if you are in a helpless situation, at a disadvantage, or in someone else's power?
10. Those who have dedicated themselves to achieving sobriety by abstaining from drinking alcoholic beverages are said to be "on the wagon". Why do people say this? To what wagon are they referring--though, perhaps, they are unaware?
Source: Author
alaspooryoric
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agony before going online.
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