The Very Thing You Need--More Cliches! Quiz

Answer: vale of tears

The poetic "vale of tears" is a metaphorical representation of human existence or life in this world, particularly from the perspective of those who see the human experience as an existence filled with turmoil, suffering, and pain. The Christian perspective is that our present life on earth is a miserable one but that, after death, we will rise up and out of this valley to a much more pleasant existence. Thus, many hymns rely on the symbolism suggested by "vale of tears". For example, James Montgomery included these words in his 1818 hymn "O Where Shall Rest Be Found?": "Beyond this vale of tears there is a life above".

The Hebrew word "Baca" or "Baka'" refers to "weeping"; thus, many have altered the "valley of Baca" to say "valley" or "vale of tears".

Answer: He releases his anger, often by expressing it toward someone who's not the real source of that anger.

"To vent one's spleen" is to "air" one's anger or frustration, to release it. The spleen is an abdominal organ considered to be primarily a part of the immune system. Its function is to filter the blood and to store platelets and white blood cells. However, in days of old, before people understood human anatomy, many believed human organs to be the storehouses and sources of various emotions.

The spleen was believed to be the seat of several morose feelings, but it eventually was associated with one's temper, as is obvious from the expression. "To vent" means to "air something out" or "to let something out of an enclosed space". "To vent one's spleen" was considered a literal action at one time--the letting out of bad air or whatever ill substance was being held in the spleen. One of the earliest written accounts of the cliche is from George Rawlinson's "Egypt and Babylon" published in 1885: "This time he . . . vented his spleen on Jews by renewed attacks and oppressions".

Answer: a vicious circle

A "vicious circle" is a disagreeable situation but, to make matters worse, is one that keeps repeating itself. A person is trapped in a cycle so that as he or she attempts to improve his or her situation, he or she is only able to continue in that same situation or is led to another negative or worse situation. Th origin of the metaphorical image and expression lies with the study of logic. To attempt to prove a claim by returning to some form of that claim as one's evidence is considered a fallacious method of arguing, and this act is called "circular reasoning" or "a vicious circle". One might picture a snake in the shape of a hoop while it is swallowing its own tail. An example of this logical fallacy is something like this: "The boy is lonely because he feels alone".

Eventually, the expression began to be used in a much wider and figurative sense. Those in the medical profession began to use "a vicious circle" to refer to the ill health of an individual who experiences one symptom that leads to another so that the individual's health steadily deteriorated. However, many others soon began to use the expression for any steadily deteriorating cycle someone could not escape.

The 1792 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" contained the following statement: "He runs into what is termed by logicians a 'vicous circle' (failure to make connection between premise and conclusion)". One hundred years later, Henry James wrote in his "Notebooks", "The whole situation works in a kind of inevitable rotary way--in what would be called a vicious circle".

Answer: They were showing their disapproval of life in East Germany by leaving.

To "vote with your feet" is to leave a place or a situation you don't like or an environment in which you no longer wish to be. The expression is used to convey that one has allowed his or her actions to speak so that one does not have to use words. The phrase seems to have arisen during the early twentieth century when Europe was ensnared in several broad, lengthy, and catastrophic conflicts so that refugees from political and military oppression were in a frequent mode of evacuation.

In response to the great numbers of Russian soldiers who were deserting the army during World War I, Vladimir Lenin himself expressed, "They voted with their feet".

He was, of course, referring to the lack of patriotic support for the Tsar. The soldiers' abandonment of their duties was as good as a vote of rejection concerning the Tsar, his government, and his policies.

Answer: variety

While many may be tempted to make a good argument that the proper word in a description of me might be "verbosity", the actual cliché is, of course, "variety is the spice of life". The expression is meant to defend an individual's choice to fill his or her life with as many different experiences as is possible or to defend an individual's choice of a wide or diverse selection of items.

Many credit William Cowper as the originator of the expression, for a version of it seems to have first appeared in his 1785 poetic work "The Task": "Variety's the very spice of life / That gives it all its flavor".

However, many suspect he was simply borrowing a popular adage that existed prior to his use of it. Christopher Burney's 1952 book "Solitary Confinement" adds to the expression in a most affirmative way: "Variety is not the spice of life.

It is the very stuff of it".

Answer: John the Baptist

Many interpret the words of Isaiah 40:3--"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (KJV)--to be a prophetic reference to John the Baptist, and each of the four Gospels of the New Testament does indeed use this expression to refer to John the Baptist.

The books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke explain that John is the individual referred to by Isaiah while the book of John presents John the Baptist declaring himself "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (John 1:23).

The current meaning of the cliché stems from the idea that while John the Baptist was trying his best to explain to people that the time of the Messiah was at hand, many of those people ignored him or refused to believe him. John the Baptist literally lived in the wilderness, where he wore animal hide and ate locusts, but, nowadays, the wilderness metaphorically represents the chaotic world and its foolish inhabitants who refuse to listen.

Answer: The vultures are circling.

"The vultures are circling" does indeed refer to the greedy and opportunistic, who are waiting for someone to fall or who are even contributing to someone's fall. For example, one might say, "Randolph's condition has worsened, and many of his relatives have suddenly arrived in town to see how all of his wealth will be bequeathed.

The vultures are circling." The source for this expression is an obvious one. While an animal lies dying in a pasture or field, vultures will circle overhead, eagerly waiting for the animal to die so that they may feast.

Answer: A Vicar of Bray

A "Vicar of Bray" is an opportunistic individual who changes his or her loyalty to whomever or whatever is most beneficial at any given time. The term refers to a self-serving turncoat, an individual of changeable allegiance. The origin of the idiom lies with Simon Aleyn, who was appointed Vicar of Bray, a parish in Berkshire during the reign of Henry VIII.

However, when Mary I ("Bloody Mary") became queen, he advantageously converted to Catholicism to maintain his career and, most likely, his life as well.

Then, when Elizabeth I gained the throne of England, he reconverted to Protestantism. While we might be very quick to judge and condemn Aleyn's behavior as detestable hypocrisy, this switching back and forth was as common as dirt for a couple of centuries of England's history. One could very easily have all of his or her titles and property confiscated as well as have his or her life taken if one were found to be supporting the wrong cause.

There were no true laws or courts to turn to for any real protection, for their leaders were just as worried about their own lives and the lives of their families.

The issue foremost in most people's minds was survival. In many ways, life was very much like the popular literary and television series "A Game of Thrones". Perhaps the real hypocrisy is from those who established the expression, for while they judged Aleyn, they would do the same were they in his shoes.

Answer: Aesop

A "viper in one's bosom", a reference to an ungrateful individual you thought was your friend but is instead an instrument of harm, is from one of Aesop's fables--"The Farmer and the Viper [Snake]". According to the story, a farmer is out walking his field one cold day in early winter and discovers a snake nearly dead because of its exposure to the low temperature.

The farmer shows compassion on the animal and places it within his coat next to his own bosom to warm the snake back to life. As the snake begins to awaken from its stupor, it bites the farmer, and the farmer dies from the venom. Depending on the interpretation of the story, the morals tend to vary, but they are all essentially connected to a negative perspective of the world. "No good deed goes unpunished", "Good is often rewarded with evil", and "People cannot change who or what they essentially are" are just a few of the examples. Basically, however, the idiomatic cliché "a viper in one's bosom" is used to refer to someone who "bites the hand that feeds him or her".

Answer: the curtain separating most of the Hebrews from the holiest sanctuary within the tabernacle

Leviticus 16 from the Bible's Old Testament makes reference to the veil, or the curtain--depending on the translation one is reading. Nevertheless, a very large piece of cloth was draped over the entrance to the Holiest of Holies, the innermost sanctuary, and only the most high priest was permitted to pass beyond this veil. Even then, he could pass into this small chamber only once per year on the Day of Atonement. The Hebrews believed that God or God's spirit dwelled within this innermost chamber.

Thus, the idea is that to pass "beyond the veil" was to enter into the presence of God and to learn something about what the essence of God was. Today, the idea implied by the expression is that one has somehow learned or experienced something of the mystery of an existence beyond this physical universe. Essentially, to "pass beyond the veil" is to die and enter the afterlife. However, some also use the expression to refer to one being "elsewhere", as in "He seems to possess a kind of wisdom the rest of us do not have. He must be beyond the veil".