Idioms and Phrases Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Out of spirits means gloomy and sad.

Here spirits means mood, as in in high spirits (cheerful) and in low spirits. To be out of spirits is to be low and dejected.

Full of joy is the opposite. Unemotional means showing no feeling, and sober means serious or not drunk; neither captures sadness.

Answer: C

To pass oneself off as means to pretend to be.

To pass oneself off as someone is to make others believe falsely that one is that person: He passed himself off as a doctor. The idea is deception about identity.

To be regarded as describes how others genuinely see someone, without any pretence. To compare oneself to involves no deceit, and to be a hypocrite means to profess beliefs one does not hold, which is a different kind of pretence.

Answer: A

Wet behind the ears means immature.

The idiom compares an inexperienced person to a newborn animal that is still damp. Someone wet behind the ears is young, naive and lacking experience.

Experienced and developed are the opposite, and cautious describes carefulness, not lack of experience.

Answer: C

Break a leg means to wish a good luck.

It is a theatrical expression said to performers before they go on stage, because wishing 'good luck' directly was thought to bring bad luck. It is now used for any performance or test.

To avoid getting to the point is 'to beat around the bush', to be very expensive is 'to cost an arm and a leg', and to face a situation bravely is 'to bite the bullet' or 'face the music'.

Answer: C

A blessing in disguise means a good and useful sign that seems bad or unlucky initially.

The idiom describes something that looks like a misfortune at first but turns out to be good. In the sentence, Susan's break-up seemed painful, but it gave her time to think about her future and take important decisions.

'An important event' and 'an auspicious occasion' miss the point that it first seems bad. 'Something completely hidden' takes disguise literally; the idiom is about the true, good nature of an event being hidden at first, not about hiding.

Answer: C

A bone of contention means point of disagreement.

The idiom comes from the picture of two dogs fighting over a bone. It means a subject or issue over which people argue, as in the sentence, where the movie's subject has long been argued over in the industry.

'Point of rejection' and 'criterion of selection' have nothing to do with argument. 'Cause of struggle' is close but too strong and too general; the idiom refers to the matter people disagree about, not to a fight or struggle as such.

Answer: B

The code is P U S T.

The four idioms are:

1. when pigs fly: never, so Luther will never take bribes (P);
2. till the cows come home: for a very long time (U);
3. hold your horses: wait, do not rush ahead (S);
4. a wild goose chase: a hopeless or pointless search (T).

Fishes and frogs (R and Q) complete none of these idioms, so every code that uses them is wrong.

Answer: C

'Out of the woods' means he is no longer in danger or difficulty.

The idiom pictures someone who has found his way out of a dark forest; it is used of a patient who has passed the critical stage of an illness or a business that has survived a crisis. 'I am out of the woods now' means the worst is over.

The other options read the words literally, as a real forest or real timber, which is the trap in any idiom question.

Answer: B

The idiom means to come to the point.

'To make a long story short' is said when a speaker skips the details and gives the essential conclusion, that is, comes to the point.

It does not mean to paraphrase (restate in other words), and it is the opposite of displaying composition skills or narrative excellence, which would lengthen the story.

Answer: D

The underlined part means I am busy.

The idiom to have one's hands full means to be fully occupied with work or responsibilities, with no time for anything else. The speaker cannot do the other person's work now because he is already busy.

The idiom says nothing about wealth or poverty, so 'I am rich' and 'I am poor' are wrong. 'I am at leisure' is the opposite of its meaning.