IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS - LESSON 25

b) news of important current events c) nastiest rumours

8) Three months after he laid off thousands of employees on Christmas Eve, the CEO himself was fired. What goes around comes around.

a) When you fire somebody, you'll probably get fired yourself soon.

b) The CEO will still come around the offices. c) When people do bad things, they're usually punished in the end.

ANSWER KEY p.157

Lesson 19

COMPLAINING ABOUT A CO-WORKER

Justin, from the marketing department, is complaining to Mary about Joe. Joe is always nasty to Justin and Justin is sick of it. Mary advises Justin not to let Joe bother him. Mary: How did the meeting with Joe go? Justin: Lousy. He was in a snit. Mary: Why? Justin: He got bent out of shape over the fact that I didn't bring him the sales forecasts. He gave me an earful about how people from the marketing department never bring him the right information.

He gave me an earful.

Mary: Don't worry about him. Don't let him push your buttons. Justin: I'll just have to steer clear of him now that I know he's such a hothead. Mary: He's not a bad guy, but hedoes have issues. And he's got a chip on his shoulder when it comes to marketing people. Justin: Joe's always on hishigh horse about something. Mary: You'll just have to grin and bear it. We've got a lot of personalities around here.* You will just have to learn to work with them. Justin: Well, I don't know how I am going to be able to work with him. He gets under my skin.

* This is a nice way of saying: Many of the people working here have strange and/or unusual personalities, and it may be difficult to work with them.

IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS - LESSON 19

in a snit in a bad mood; angry EXAMPLE: No wonder Donna's in a snit. She just found out she didn't get the promotion she was expecting.

(to be or to get) bent out of shape to be or to get very angry about something EXAMPLE: When Nick's boss told him he couldn't take two weeks off for a vacation, he got bent out of shape.

(to) give somebody an earful to say what you really think, in detail (usually criticism and often more than the other person wants to hear) EXAMPLE: When Doug showed up for work late again, his boss gave him an earful.

(to) push one's buttons to annoy someone; to make someone angry EXAMPLE: Liz pushes my buttons with her bossy behaviour.

(to) steer clear of somebody or something to avoid or stay away from someone or something

EXAMPLE: Ray is on a low-carb diet. He needs to steer clear of bread and pasta and other foods high in carbohydrates.

hot-head a bad-tempered or very moody person; a violent person EXAMPLE: Don't feel bad that Tim yelled at you. He's a real hot-head, and he yells at people all the time.