Idiom quiz

Do you want to improve your English in a fun way? My newsletter regularly features an idiom quiz as well as many other tips about learning English. Here are the answers to the recent quizzes.

Quiz answers

Here are the answers to September's idioms.

1. Someone who is wears clothes that are inappropriate for their (old) age is

A. a sheep dressed as a lamb

B. mutton dressed as lamb

2. When you are tired a friend might invite you to  

A. put your feet up

B. put up your feet

3.  A person who values novelty will argue that  

A. variety is the pepper for people

B. variety is the spice of life

4.  Someone who is very unreliable might leave you

A. in the lurch

B. on the lurch

5. At the end of a tough week, you might want to go to a party to

A. let down your hair

B. let your hair down

In August the idioms all featured in the quirky novel Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Are you familiar with any of them?

1. Someone who is lazy doesn't

A. lift a finger

B. lift a hand

2. A way of saying that a situation/ decision is important is

A. when push comes to shove

B. when pull comes to punch

3.  A person who is very confused by something

A. can't make left or right of it

B. can't make head or tails of it

4.  Someone who is very unreliable might leave you

A. in the lurch

B. on the lurch

5. If you have to follow the rules, you are expected to

A. tap the line

B. toe the line

This month there are some sporting idioms for you which I came across during the Women's Euros, which were held in Switzerland. I got tickets for two of the England matches, one in Zurich and the other in St Gallen and managed to see ten goals being scored by England. The idioms I've included were in newspaper match reports or as part of the commentary of the matches I watched on TV.

1. If you are losing a match and down to the final few minutes,you might ...

A. throw caution to the wind

B. throw caution to the fire

2. A team that isn’t pressing forward might have taken

A. their foot off the gas

B. their feet off the gas

3.  A player who is really determined, in a fighting spirit has got

A. the bit between her teeth

B. the stick between her teeth

4.  When your options are limited you have your

A. bottoms to the wall

B. backs to the wall

5. A match that is only won or lost in the final minutes goes

A. up to the wire

B. down to the wire

PS If you want to see the idiom 'to take your foot off the gas' in action, you can read this article about the England vs Sweden game here. Note that we use the word 'foot' rather than feet. I assume this is because only one foot is used to press down the accelerator (or gas pedal) in a car.

Here are the answers to the idiom quiz from newsletter 38

1. If something happens unexpectedly, it comes like

A. a bolt from the blue

B. a flash in the pan

2. Someone who speaks highly of you will

A. sing your praises

B. praise your singing

3.  A person who helps you out straight away will do it at

A. the drop of a cap

B. the drop of a hat

4.  When your options are limited you are stuck between

A. a rock and a hard place

B. a rock and a difficult place

5. To move from a dangerous place to one that is worse, you move

A. from the fire to the frying pan

B. out of the frying pan into the fire

Newsletter 37 was a grammar quiz. Here are the answers

1. Which of the following words is a participle? (More than one answer might be possible).

A. do

B. did

C. done (past participle)

D. doing (present participle)

2. Which of the following adjectives can be modified with the word 'very'?

A. ridiculous

B. funny

C. disgraceful

3. Complete the following. What would you do if you .... Hopefully you remembered to use a past tense verb in your answer. For example, what would you do if you found 200chf?

4. Which is correct?

A. I made a mistake.

B. I did a mistake.

5. Which is the best option?

A. I often go to work by foot.

B. I often go to work by feet.

C. I often go to work on my feet.

Newsletter 36 had some of the same idioms as the previous one. Maybe this has helped you to remember them! If not, here are the answers

1. If you want to make a person feel worse, you can

   B. rub salt in the wound.

2. If you can't decide about something, you are in

   B. two minds about it.

3.  If you really like something, it is right

   B. up your street

4.  If you suddenly realise something, you can say

   A. It dawned on me.

5. To tell someone to stay silent, you can ask them to

   A. hold your peace

Here are the answers to the idiom quiz in newsletter 35.

1. To talk about something that interests you

This is just up my street.

2. If you can't decide about something

I'm in two minds about it.

3. Someone who has lots of energy is

full of beans.

4. If you believe in something and want to demonstrate it financially

put your money where your mouth is.

5. If something didn't go as expected, you could say

it didn't pan out as expected.

Newsletter 34 featured a grammar quiz. How did you find it? Check your answers here.

1. What are the three auxiliary verbs in English? Be, do and have.

2. What is a tag question? Write three tag questions, each using a different tag. It's raining, isn't it? She can speak Italian, can't she? They aren't open on Mondays, are they? You might have some other answers too.

3. Which of these is not a preposition?

   a.    with  

   b.    without

   c.    never

   d.    in

   e.    for

4. Transform the verb employ into three nouns and two adjectives. You can add a prefix at the beginning. Employee, employer and employment. Unemployed and employable.

5. What is the secret to learning grammar? This one is up to you to think about. For me, the secret is being interested and taking the time to think about grammar.

It's another new year! Time to ring the changes maybe? How did you get on with this month's idiom quiz? Check your answers here.

1. I'm up to my ears in work.

2. Everyone was up in arms about the planned road.

3. You're in for a treat tonight. It's going to be a good show. 

4. It's time to ring the changes. 

5. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Newsletter 32 featured a Christmas quiz. Here are the answers.

1. The 26th December is known as Boxing Day.

2. Holly has green leaves and red berries

3. Mince Pies are a sweet dessert made with mincemeat, which despite its name doesn't contain any meat.

4. Last Christmas was kept off the top of the charts by the charity single from Band Aid - Do they know it's Christmas.

5. Five golden rings

Newsletter 31 had some sport related idioms. Did you get the answers right?

1. They've got the wind in their sails.

2. They are at sixes and sevens.

3. They are on the back foot.

4. They've got the bit between their teeth.

5. They need to take the bull by the horns.

Here are the answers to the idioms in newsletter 29. If you were wondering which one describes me, I would definitely say that I am a creature of habit. I like going back to things that I'm familiar with. I have my favourite restaurants and eat the same thing for breakfast almost every day! Having said that, I do also like to push myself out of my comfort zone, especially with a bit of encouragement from the right people.

1. A creature of habit - someone who likes doing the same things again and again.

2. To push yourself out of your comfort zone - to do new and challenging things.

3. Did you get out of bed on the wrong side today? Used to describe someone who is being moody. This is a bit different to the German idiom about getting up on the wrong foot.

4. She doesn't suffer fools gladly - she isn't very tolerant of people who are behaving in a foolish way.

5. It's time to throw in the towel - this is from last week. Hopefully you don't want to throw in the towel with your English studies.

The idiom quiz for newsletter 28 was based on the book Baumgartner by Paul Auster. Here are the answers.

1. To kick the bucket = humorous way to talk about dying

2. To flog a dead horse = To do something that is pointless. Actually, the book uses the idiom to beat a dead horse but I'm much more familiar with the word 'flog' in this context. If you want to know which expression Google thinks is more popular, have a look at Ngrams.

3. To give up the ghost = to give up/ to die/ to stop working

4. Put out to pasture = To be forced to leave work because you are no longer useful (think of a working horse that spends its 'retirement' in a field just eating grass)

5. It's time to throw in the towel = to give up (a boxer's coach throws in the towel to stop a fight)

The idioms in Newsletter 27 were based on the book 'Our Souls at Night' by Kent Haruf. How did you get on?

1. A To get on somebody's nerves. = To annoy someone.

2. A. To kick somebody's butt. = To beat someone/ to beat someone up/ to tell someone off.

3. A. To get wind of something. = To hear about something, such as interesting news or gossip.

4. B. To hear somebody out. = To listen to what someone has to say without interrupting them.

5. B. To read between the lines. To work out something that is implied rather than explicitly said.

Here are the answers to the quiz in Newsletter 26.

1. B. Does he come from another planet?

2. B. I fear we have missed the boat. We should have invested last year.

3. A. They are being economical with the truth.

4. B. The proof's in the pudding.

5. A. She loves the sound of her own voice.
   

Newsletter 25 featured a numbers quiz. Did you get the answers right? Check here.

1.     A. $44 billion

2.     B. 22nd April

3.     A. She is five years old.

4.     A. He is a five-year-old child.

5.     B. A 67-year-old woman is in her sixties.

6.     B. The decade in which I was born was the 1970s. (In British English there is no apostrophe before the s)

Do you want to know the questions? If so, make sure to sign up for my free newsletter here.

In newsletter 24 we did a spot of revision and I introduced some new idioms. Here are the answers.

1. Burn the candle at both ends.

2. Don't dig your heels in.

3. His efforts really put ours to shame.

4. I'm feeling a bit under the weather at the moment.

5. They were over the moon when they heard that they had won the contract.

Here are the answers to the idiom quiz in newsletter 23.

1. He couldn't keep a straight face.

2. Everyone was up in arms about the planned road.

3. You're in for a treat tonight. It's going to be a good show.

4. I'm going to pluck up the courage and do it.

5. Every cloud has a silver lining.

In newsletter 22 I tested you on the words check and control. Here are the answers:

1. He is a control freak.

2. I love red and white checked duvets.

3. Have you checked the bill?

4. She has worked as a financial controller for many years.

5. Checkmate! The game is over.

The answers to the vocabulary and idiom quiz in issue 21 are as follows:

1. stickler

2. rule the roost

3. mumbling

4. closet

5. shame

In issue 20 we did an abbreviations quiz. Here are the answers:

1. I don't care

2. In my humble opinion

3. For your information

4. To be honest

5. If I recall correctly

Here are the answers to the idiom quiz in newsletter 18

1.  Err on the side of caution. = It's better to be cautious rather than reckless.

2. Turn a blind eye to it. = Ignore something, don't report it.

3. Make up your mind. = Decide.

4. I need to recharge my batteries. = Take time to get more energy. Note that we say batteries in the plural in English.

5. We had better go before it starts snowing. = We should go.

The idioms in Newsletter 17 were partly inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Here are the answers:

1A. I couldn't put my finger on it = I couldn't quite identify 'it'

2B. To pull somebody's leg = to trick someone (in a friendly way)

3A. He really gets people's backs up = He annoys other people

4A. Don't beat about the bush = get to the point (we rarely praise someone for beating about the bush!)

5A. To blow your own trumpet = to praise yourself

The answers to the idiom quiz in Newsletter 16 are:

1A. We put our plans on the back burner = our plans are on hold

2A. We're not out of the woods yet = we're still in danger

3B. I can read him like a book = you know what he is thinking

4A. She knows how to push my buttons = she knows how to annoy me, to wind me up

5B. The vultures are circling = someone is waiting to take advantage of a difficult situation

Ask Google (or a different search engine) if you want to find out more about the meanings of these idioms.

The answers to the idiom quiz in Newsletter 15 are as follows:

1. B. Stick to your guns

2. A. It's out of the question

3. B. If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours

4. B. It was the final nail in the coffin

5. A. You've got the wrong end of the stick

The answers to the idiom quiz in Newsletter 14 are as follows:

1. B. Stick to your guns

2. A. It's out of the question

3. A. If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours

4. A. She is quick on the uptake (quick off the mark is a different idiom)

5. B. She rubs me up the wrong way

Here are the answers to the idiom quiz in Newsletter 10.

1. Hold your horses

2. They were up in arms about the new plans. (anger/ arms/ ears)

3. Their hands were tied. (strings/ feet / hands)

4. He is a safe pair of hands. (fine / tidy / safe)

5. That’s par for the course. (par / average / far )

Want to discover more about idioms? Click here to read what idioms are and why they can be tricky to learn.

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