Business Idioms 10 Review

Young man in a crowd looking back over his shoulder

Take a look back

Image Credit
Artem Beliaikin via Unsplash

This lesson will look back on the previous four lessons. You will get a chance to remember and use idioms you have learned.

Introduction

Recall the language you learned in previous lessons. What was your favourite idiom from each lesson? Have you had a chance to use it?

Your teacher will help you to remember at least two idioms from each unit.

  • Success
  • Failure
  • Progress 
  • Hard work

Why idioms? 

Idioms bring up a lot of pre-packaged imagery. They are emotive and they resonate with native speakers.

Don't over-use them, but on the other hand, a well-placed idiom will bring your language to life.

Introduction

You do not need to make the student produce each phrase. 

Rather, choose any two (or more) from each unit. You may consider the following.

  • Which phrase do they remember?
  • Which do you tend to use or hear?

  • Or, just go with the two recommended review. 

Review only the most suitable phrases.

Method to review

Choose a couple idioms from each lesson and read the definition: 

Teacher: What's an idiom for when you are ahead of your competitors, or ahead of a trend?
Student: Oh, it's "ahead of the pack."
Teacher: Correct.

Unit 6: Success

  1. Recommended review:
    • ahead of the pack/curve—ahead of your competitors, a trend or a way of thinking.
  2. Recommended review:
    • corner a market—gain control of the market for a commodity.
  3. from the ground up—from the very beginning; starting with the basics; from the foundations.
  4. go through the roof—rise very quickly.
  5. ground-breaking—innovative, pioneering.

Unit 7: Failure

  1. Recommended review:
    • come up short—fail to reach a goal or standard.
  2. Recommended review:
    • cut one's losses—avoid losing any more money than you have already lost.
  3. easy come, easy go—said when something, especially money, is easily acquired and then soon spent or lost.
  4. go broke—spend or lose all of your money.
  5. go down the drain—be completely wasted or spoiled.

Unit 8: Progress

  1. Recommended review:
    • up in the air—uncertain, not yet resolved.
  2. Recommended review:
    • uphill battle—something that is very difficult to do.
  3. stay on track—to progress as planned or expected.
  4. meet the deadline—finish an activity by the time limit.
  5. run smoothly—to progress easily and without interruption.
  6. throw a spanner/wrench in the works—do or be something that prevents a plan or activity from succeeding.

Unit 9: Hard work

  1. Recommended review:
    • be snowed under—have a lot of work to do.
  2. Recommended review:
    • work your fingers to the bone—work very hard for a long time.
  3. crack the whip—use your authority to push someone to work harder.
  4. all in a day’s work—express the idea that although you have accomplished something, it's just a normal part of your job.
  5. put your nose to the grindstone—work very hard.
  6. burn the candle at both ends—go to bed late and get up early.
Practice

A. Real-world examples

For each short passage below, do the following: 

  • Read the passage and predict the idiom.
  • Listen to the audio, identify the idiom and compare it to your prediction.
  • Explain in your own words what it means.

Note: don't try to grasp the full context; just focus on the idiom being used.

  1. An author talks about a failed housing development in the South Bronx where he grew up. 
    "Originally, they were going to build larger housing facilities, affordable housing, but the money wasn't forthcoming. That went ___________."
     
  2. A presenter ends his presentation by talking about what's undecided.
    "Now, we're moving onto just a couple of final points then. The aspect of this conversation that's still most ___________ is privacy and ethics."
     
  3. The National Science Foundation introduces the job of astronomers at an Astronomy Observatory.
    "Star birth, star death, black holes, colliding galaxies, these and more are all ___________ at the VLA."
     
  4. A CEO talks about funding after her huge crowdsourcing success through Kickstarter.
    "We raised our first major round of capital right after the Kickstarter had kind of gone ___________.
     
  5. An attendee describing her concerns at the Women Techmakers Summit in 2015.
    "There's tonnes of data that says that people that work minorly reduced hours are actually just as productive, if not more productive, because you have good reasons to get your stuff done. Even better, so that you can have that extra time with, let's say, your child, or whatever reason you want reduced hours. The tech companies are super against that. And, I am fighting a terrible ___________."
     
  6. A Q&A at a seminar about the acceleration of technological change.
    "So my question is about the I.T. industry and what can you say about the ability of the industry in terms of meeting people's needs today and being ___________ and where it's going...?"
     
  7. A City Council representative describes the hard work it takes to serve the city.
    "It was basically ___________, getting to work, and it's been really a great opportunity to serve in this capacity."
     
  8. An actor describes a project that failed.
    "Well obviously it was a bummer, but you know as an actor, it's like really truly ___________. I mean these things they come together and they fall apart all the time."
     

B: Discussion 

Now, speak naturally about the following topics.

  1. It's commonly said that Eastern countries value consistent hard work, while Western countries value rest and efficiency. Talk about your country's view of hard work. 
    • How do you make the most progress while avoiding burnout?
    • How would you define "career failure"?
  2. Describe the greatest success story in your country that you can think of.
    • Was there a risk of failure? 
    • How much hard work went into the success?