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Idioms and Phrases Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 2 ] :

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

1. We were walking across the garden when my daughter spotted a cluster of familiar red flowers. She pulled me to one side and then, looking excitedly at me as though she had a secret to share, she pulled me down to her height and whispered in my ears. I shot up straight almost as soon as she had finished her sentence. With my mouth ajar, I was about to tell her that it was probably not a good idea to do so when I was transported to the time when I was around her age.

2. It had been a rather long day from school and I was dead tired. I was walking along the pathway that was lined with many ixora plants when my friend grabbed me by the arm. Before I could do anything, he gleefully plucked a single flower from the cluster and showed it to me. Unimpressed, I was not about to be swayed by a puny flower and was about to admonish him when he turned the flower upside down to show me a tiny almost invisible thread-like thing that protruded out from its stalk.

3. He pulled the faint yellowish thread and right at the end of it, a tiny drop of nectar appeared. At least, that was what I think it was, as it was really quite sweet. That day we raided the ixora plants. We really had a lot of fun. I could still taste the sweetness till today. My daughter's urgent tug brought me back to reality. I turned to my daughter and decided that she too needed to know the joy of tasting sweet nectar from beautiful blooms.

1.

'to be transported in time' means __________.

Exam Year(s)

CTET - 2024,

Answer: C

'To be transported in time' means to recollect memories of the past.

The phrase is figurative: a sight, sound or smell carries a person's mind back to an earlier period, so that they vividly remember it. It describes remembering, not actual movement.

'Travel backwards' and 'indulge in time travel' take the figure literally, as if the person physically went back in time, and 'take future decisions' points the wrong way in time altogether.

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2.

'To be dead tired' does not mean -

Exam Year(s)

CTET - 2024,

Answer: D

'To be dead tired' does not mean to feel refreshed.

'Dead tired' is an idiom for being extremely tired, completely exhausted, so tired that one can hardly go on, perhaps too tired even to walk.

Options A, B and C all express that exhaustion in different degrees, so they are meanings of the idiom. Feeling refreshed is its opposite, which is why it is the answer to a question asking what the phrase does not mean.

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Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

Soon some idea struck her and she went to the window and hollered, 'Roopa! Roopa!' After calling out for Roopa, she had a look at the things that she had brought for her. Roopa had to sit for her home science examination the next day and Tarawati had collected things like some kitchen items, a bucket, a mug and a stool that Roopa required for the practical examination.

While looking at the things that she had collected for Roopa, Tarawati recalled her husband who had died a few years ago. She remembered him berating her for not treating Roopa well. 'Roopa's mother! Do not think only sons deserve all love and care and not daughters'. I'm determined to give Roopa good education so that she leads a happy and meaningful life. You are not educated yourself. That's probably why you don't want her to be educated. This is not fair on your part. You must change your views and let her grow and flower into a happy, confident individual.'

Thinking of her husband's admonition on this account, Tarawati felt emotional. The fact of the matter was that Roopa's parents differed on Roopa's upbringing and fought with each other on the issue. The fight continued for days together and often it was Roopa who intervened to broker peace between them. On his death-bed too, Roopa's father had cried and pleaded with her to treat Roopa in a nice manner. Hugging Roopa, he had told Tarawati, 'Take care of Roopa. Give her good education and let her decide the course of her life herself.' While recalling the interaction, tears rolled down Tarawati's eyes.

Meanwhile, the evening shadows were getting darker. Tarawati was exhausted and had a headache too. She looked at her dust-laden feet and then around the room. In order to bring some semblance of order, she forced herself to get up and get going. Then she called her daughter again, Roopa! Roopa!'.

3.

'Things were lying at sixes and sevens ...' means .....

Exam Year(s)

CTET - 2026,

Answer: B

'At sixes and sevens' means in a disorderly state.

The idiom describes confusion and disorder. The context supports it: Tarawati looks around the room and, 'in order to bring some semblance of order', forces herself to get up. Order is needed only because things are untidy.

'In proper order' is the opposite. 'Old and worn-out' and 'dirty and unwashed' describe the condition of objects, which the idiom does not do, and the passage mentions only her dust-laden feet.

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Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

We sallied out at three o'clock in the afternoon, having finished our tiffin and coffee. The main job for the day was to mount and frame the photograph. Uncle carried it in his hand delicately, enclosed in an old envelope, as if it were fragile and likely to perish at a finger's pressure. As we went down the street, a neighbour standing at his door hailed us and demanded, "Where are you taking the young fellow?" He was an engineer who worked in some distant projects on the hills, coming home once in a while and then again disappearing from our society. He was a particular friend of my uncle as they occasionally gathered for a game of cards in my house. He asked, "I am here for a few days. Can't we have a session some time?"

"Of course, of course," said my uncle without much fervour, "I will let you know", and moved on.

"Won't aunt get angry?" I asked, remembering the arguments they had had after every card session. The card players would have been sitting around in the middle of the hall, demanding coffee and edibles, and playing far into the night. My aunt would complain after the company had dispersed, "Sitting there with your friends, you lock me up in the kitchen all day! What madness seizes you people when you touch a pack of cards, I wonder!" Worn out by her attacks, my uncle began to avoid his friends, the company gradually dwindled and disappeared. But it did not prevent them from dreaming about cards or luxuriating in visions of a grand session. Somewhere my uncle was supposed to have lost a lot of money through the card games, and my aunt was very definite that he should never go near cards again, although he kept saying, "We play only Twenty-eight, and not Rummy, after all, Twenty-eight...".

4.

What does the expression, 'We sallied out ...' mean in the context?

Exam Year(s)

CTET - 2026,

Answer: D

'We sallied out' means to leave in a determined manner.

To sally out is to set out briskly and with purpose, from the old sense of a sudden rush out of a fortress. Here the narrator and his uncle leave at three o'clock with a clear job, framing the photograph, and the word suggests purposeful starting.

It does not mean a casual outing, as 'jaunt' would, nor a lethargic walk, which is the opposite. 'To rush out in a hurry' overstates the idea, since nothing in the passage shows any hurry.

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Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

The contacts between India and the western world which Chandragupta Maurya had established continued during the reign of his son, Bindusara. Ambassadors came to the court at Pataliputra from Ptolemy of Egypt and Antiochus, the son and successor of Seleucus Nicator of Western Asia. Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, added to these contacts, and India became in his time an important international centre, chiefly because of the rapid spread of Buddhism.

Ashoka succeeded to this great empire in about 273 BC. He had previously served as Viceroy in the North-Western province of which Taxila, the university centre, was the capital. Already the empire included the greater part of India and extended right into Central Asia. Only the South-East and a part of the South were beyond its sway. The old dream of uniting the whole of India under one supreme government fired Ashoka and forthwith he undertook the conquest of Kalinga on the east coast, which corresponds roughly with modern Orissa and part of Andhra. His armies triumphed in spite of the brave and obstinate resistance of the people of Kalinga. There was a terrible slaughter in the war, and when news of this reached Ashoka, he was stricken with remorse and disgusted with war. Unique among the victorious monarchs and captains in history, he decided to abandon warfare in the full tide of victory. The whole of India acknowledged his sway, except for the southern tip, and that tip was his for the taking. But he refrained from any further aggression, and his mind turned, under the influence of the Buddha's gospel, to conquests and adventures in other fields.

5.

What does the underlined idiom in the expression '... that tip was his for the taking' mean ?

Exam Year(s)

CTET - 2026,

Answer: D

The idiom means available for taking.

If something is 'yours for the taking', you can have it simply by deciding to take it; nothing stands in your way. Said of the southern tip of India, it means Ashoka could easily have conquered it had he wished.

'Difficult to get' is the opposite meaning. 'To take at face value' means to accept something as it appears without questioning it, and 'to take for granted' means to assume something without thinking about it or to fail to appreciate it. Neither fits here.

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Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 10 ] :

Some proverbs/idioms are given below together with their meanings. Choose the correct meaning of proverb/idiom.

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