Page 174 - English Vocabulary In Use upper intermediet and advance

Exercises

84. I Find proverbs on the left-hand page which would be suitable for these situations.
Example: Someone says they have just been offered a free two-week holiday, but are
hesitating whether to take up the offer. Never look a gift-horse in the mouth.
1 Someone thanks you and your friends for helping to load heavy boxes into a van.
2 Someone says they can't be bothered applying to different universities and will just apply
to one.
3 Three different people have made different arrangements for the same meeting, and so
everyone comes at different times and the result is total confusion.

Some proverbs are similar in meaning to one another. Which proverbs on the left go with
which on the right, and what do they have in common in terms of meaning?
1 A bird in the hand Never judge a book by its cover.
is worth two in the bush.
2 Don't count your chickens Familiarity breeds contempt.
before they are hatched.
3 All that glitters is not gold. Never look a gift-horse in the mouth.
4 Absence makes the heart Don't cross your bridges
grow fonder. before you come to them.

84.3 In spoken language, people often refer to proverbs by only saying half of them and leaving
the rest for the listener to 'fill in'. Complete the proverbs in these dialogues.
1 A: 'Joel's always criticising people who are selfish, yet he's terribly selfish himself.
B: Yes, well, people who live in glass houses.. .
C: Exactly.
2 A: The people in the office have been playing computer games all day since the boss
fell ill.
B: Well, you know what they say: when the cat's away ...
A: Right, and they're certainly doing that.
3 A: I didn't believe those rumours about Nick and Gill, but apparently they are seeing
each other.
B: You shouldn't be so naive, you know what they say, no smoke ..., eh?
A: Mm, I suppose you're right.
4 A: Amazing, he's made a fortune from just one little shop!
B: Well, I think it's a case of take care of the pence ...
A: Sure, he's always been very careful with his money.
Follow-up: Try translating some proverbs from your language, word for word into English,
and then, if you can, ask a native speaker if they recognise any English proverb as having the
same or similar meaning.

English Vocabulary in Use