«As she pushed her shopping cart down an aisle of the Super Stop & Shop near her hometown of Warren, R.I., recently, Ms. Cabrera, a retired schoolteacher, offered her thoughts on why she steers clear of high-fructose corn syrup: "It's been linked to obesity, and it's just not something that's natural or good for you." - The New York Times
to steer clear (of something) - to avoid something; to stay away from something. (Note that "to steer" means to guide with a wheel or a similar device. When there's something in the road, you may need to steer your car around it).
«No one is predicting that the iPod economy will be slowing soon. Mr. Baker said: "We've barely scratched the surface with the video iPod." - The New York Times
«In some communities, efforts are being made to increase the amount of affordable housing. Celebrity-heavy Aspen, for example, has created 2,600 low-cost units over the past 30 years. But such measures only scratch the surface of the problem». - Financial Times to (barely or only) scratch the surface - to only begin to explore or understand something; to deal with something only superficially
«Rap-metal, once all the rage in the '90s thanks to bands like Limp Bizkit, now seems as relevant as Beavis and Butt- head». – the New York Times
"Condos are all the rage right now," Hodgett said. "People like to be close to downtown and walk to restaurants and shopping. They can come home in the evening and not worry about mowing the lawn." – The daily Mail all the rage - very popular, trendy
Weber, the grill maker founded in Mount Prospect, Ill., in 1952, is refining its most expensive grill, the $2,200 Summit Platinum D6, in response to buyers who want more bells and whistles, said Brooke Jones, a Weber product manager. "They are looking for stainless steel grills and more accessories like rotisseries, warmer drawers, side burners and hand lights," she said. - The New York Times
bells and whistles - fancy features; product features that make a product more premium or expensive but that are not usually necessary; extras Just seven months after the city's bid to host the 2012 Olympics fell flat, a key booster of the effort has opened the door to a scramble for the 2016 games - statements that fly in the face of previous comments by Mayor Bloomberg and other city officials. –The Observer fly in the face - contradict; go against It took Carolyn Fellwock and Charlie Watson only 11 months to tie the knot after meeting on Yahoo Personals – and three years more to call it quits. The Times
to tie the knot – to get married to call it quits – to end something (such as a relationship, a job, a project, etc)/
Some people who met a spouse online and later divorced aren’t losing heart. Some even say they would date online again. – The Wall Street Journal to lose heart – to give up hope; to get discouraged.
Diana Leal, a Woodland Hills paralegal, said that when she was working in Dallas, she immediately lost respect for her attorney boss when he asked her out for dinner. I couldn't believe it. I think he just fell for my beauty or something. And then when I said `no,' he fired me," Leal said. "Bottom line, you can't be friends with your boss. It complicates things." – Los Angeles Daily News
bottom line – the main point is…; the conclusion is…
Kids too into school have lost their love of learning (if they ever had any). They cram and forget. They're stressed. They're sleep-deprived. They compete with their "friends" and kiss up to their teachers. – The Times
Have a good relations hip with your boss. That does not mean kiss up to your boss. If it gets too far along a bad path, it means you don't get the good assignments, don't get the promotions and don't have a chance to advance your career. Plus, you may just be miserable. Make sure your relationship with your boss is open and honest, casual yet also professional. – The News & Observer to kiss up – to flatter; try to gain favor with; behave in a way to make people like you more.
But Vladimir Nuzhny, a toxicologist, said up to half of imported wine has not corresponded to the required quality since the fall of the Soviet Union . "It never killed anyone and Russian leadership used to turn a blind eye, but now relations are worsening with the Georgian and Moldovan leaders they don't see a need to ignore it any more," he said. - The Guardian to turn a blind eye - to ignore; to pretend that something is not happening; to let something illegal or wrong happen without saying anything.
George W. Bush can be sure of one thing when he next visits China on official business. Chinese president Hu Jintao won't try to emulate the Texas charm the US president dishes out at his Crawford ranch, dressing down to shoot the breeze over pork dumplings at a village restaurant. - Financial Times shoot the breeze - to talk; to chat; to make conversation
Steve Girdler, director of services at Kelly UK, agrees that Sugar's methods are impressive. "Sometimes I think we can be too soft in our assessment of graduates. But what's the point when we know that in reality, business can be a dog-eat-dog world?" - The Guardian dog-eat-dog world - a cruel world; a challenging environment in which people just look out for themselves,
As the cost of living for young people rises, the helping hand from parents is extending well past college years. – The New York Times There was a table for the folks from Alcoholics Anonymous, another where people could sign up for food stamps and another where homeless veterans could find a helping hand. –The Guardian (the or a) helping hand – assistance; help.
In one of his first acts as president, Obama was gagging for the prison at Guantánamo closed within the first year of his presidency and ordered a review of the status of the roughly 245 men still detained there. The review is underway now.- The Guardian
Be gagging for something-to want something or want to do something very much «Companies developing this technology are not necessarily cashing in».- The Timescash in (on something) - to make money doing something.
Conclusion
Being based on the accomplished practical and theoretical research we came to the conclusion that Idioms are figurative expressions which do not mean what they literally state is and since they are so frequently encountered in both oral and written discourse, comprehending and producing idioms present language learners with a special vocabulary learning problem The essential feature of idioms is lack of motivation. This term (idiom) habitually used by English and American linguistics is very often treated as synonymous with the term phrasiological unit. Phrasiological units are habitually defined as non – motivated word – groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready – made units. The phraseological units may be classified into three big groups taking into account mainly the degree of idiomayticity: Phreseological fusions, phreseological unities, phreseological collocations the essential features of idioms are stability of the lexical components and lack of motivation.Idioms add spice to the communication discourse thus making it more palatable. Idioms are often used by both journalists and politicians as short hand ways of expressing opinion or conveying ready made evaluations.
Newspaper is a publication that appears regularly and frequently, and carries news about a wide variety of current events Newspapers are most often published on a daily or weekly basis, and they usually focus on one particular geographic area where most of their readers live. English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means,which is perceived by the community as separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing, instructing the reader. The available literature on studies of idioms shows the considerable involvement of newspapers by the researchers. Studies in Argentina, Finland and the UnitedStates indicate strong links between having used newspapers in the class and academic achievement. We came to the conclusion that the use of idioms isn’t only an interesting theme for research but also, creatively used, newspapers and magazines can effectively promote learning, critical thinking, creativity and resourcefulness in learners of all ages .Studies have shown that using newspapers in education helps students increase their vocabulary and comprehension.There are evidences that the newspapers can play a great role in language proficiency. «Proficiency» in a language can be divided into many categories e.g. words, grammar, syntax, length of the sentences etc. but the present study presents an entirely new angle of learning, i.e. idioms & phrases.
Although complete mastery of idioms may be nearly impossible, every learner must be prepared to meet the challenge simply because idioms occur so frequently in the spoken and written English.
In this coarse paper we have discussed how idioms can be used in newspapers and how they can influence the speech by making it more colorful and bright.
Many linguists analyzed approximately 200,000 words from political debates, taped psychotherapy sessions and compositions written by students and adults. They concluded that those people used about 4.08 idioms per minute. Cooper (1998) transcribed the idioms from 3 hours of taped television programs. The newspapers’ readers and writers are in possession of a nearly fix number of commonly used idioms and phrases and the learning is mediated by the newspaper.
Bibliography
1.Galperin I.R. « Stylistics» 1977
2.Ginsburg R. S. « A coarse in modern English Lexicology» 1979
3.Арнольд И. В «Лексикологиа современного английского Языка» Москва, 1979
4.Charles Hockett « A coarse in modern linguistics» 1958
5.Adam Makkai « Idiom structure in English» 1972
6.Raymond W. Gibbs « Idioms and formulaic language» 1994
7.Stephen Gramley « A survey in modern English» 1992
8.Смирнитски А. И . «Лексикология англиского языка»1956
Practical part from newspapers
9.« The Times» 2008
10.« The Guardian» 2009
11.« The New York times»2007
12.«Financial Times»2009
13.«The daily Mail»2008
14.« The Observer» 2008
15.« The Wall street Journal» 2007
16.« The Los Angeles News» 2009
17.«http://www.wikipedia.ru»