Understanding 

idiomatic expressions 

(地道的英语习惯用语）

An idiom  is  an expression that has a special meaning that is different from the meaning of the individual words.

Effective readers keep reading, in search of contextual clues (examples,explanations,and opposite or similar phrases) and try to understand the cultural background that can help them figure out the meaning of an idiom.

Here are two examples from Text A:

Example 1:

The night when he announced to the world that I was his girlfriend, I went along with him.（Para. 4)

From the context,what goes before and after the sentence,we can possibly get the meaning of the phrase: to agree with or support someone or something.

那天晚上当他向大家宣布我是他的女朋友，我是同意的。

Example 2:

I cried out, "Good heavens. No! We're too young to tie the knot. We haven't even graduated from college yet! "(Para. 9)

The context clue tells us it may have to do with marriage since the author says"We're too young to tie the knot", Also the entire text is talking about romantic love, so we can assume it must have the meaning of getting married. Without the context,it's impossible to associate the phrase tie the knot with marriage.

我大喊出来：“天哪。不！我们现在结婚太早了。我们甚至还没有大学毕业呢！”

Question :

1.Have you ever notice the idiomatic expressions in your study?  Could you guess the meaning of “go Dutch”, “save the date”and “chip in”?

2.List some of idiomatic expressions , and try to get the meanings based on their cultural and contextual background.