My Word! [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Here you will find a selection of short passages written in modern, up-to-date English. And as they are taken from many different sources you will find they are written in many different styles. There are extracts from novels by famous writers, there are letters to newspapers from people who are quite obscure and unknown, there are songs and stories; you will find funny pieces and serious pieces, sensible articles and somé which may seem just downright silly. What they have in common is this. They have not been specially written for the student of English; the constructions used and the words chosen have not been specially selected to make things easy for you. This is thé sort of English that the British and the Americans read. After each passage, we have taken several words that occur in it, and have shown somé different idiomatic ways in which this word is commonly used in modern English. But please do not think that because, for instance, the word 'fire' is given in ten different combinations in chapter 16 that only ten exist. You will certainly be able to find more if you wish. If you have a dictionary of idioms you will probably be able to find many more. This book does not set out to be a dictionary of idioms in disguise. There is very little point in knowing a vast number of idioms that you will never be able to use, and that you will never hear. It does try to show you how somé of the more common idioms are used so that you will understand them if you see them written or if you hear them spoken. And it is quite sure that if you have much to do with native English-speaking people you will hear a lot of idioms used. We use them all the time, without thinking. We are made that way. That is not to say that you must try and express your every thought in an idiomatic way. Just because your English friend complains that he is 'dog-tired', it is no reason why you should reply 'Park yourself there and take the weight off your poor old plates while I get you a snorter,' instead of'Sit down and have a rest while I get you a drink'. Furthermore, if you did this you would immediately give yourself away as an avid reader of old-fashioned books on idioms and slang. Idioms come into fashion and they go out again; many that we find in somé of these dictionaries we have already mentioned have a rather dusty, Victorian air. Slang does the same thing, but much faster. What is up-to-date and 'with it' today is dated and old-fashioned tomorrow. Slang and idioms are régiónál, too, and phrases that are in everyday use in one part of the country may be totally unknown in another. They even vary from family to family.