Tag: pipe dream
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Epitome
WotD: Epitome I write about words, idioms, and phrases that come up in class and for which students request clarification or a simple definition. The word epitome is, if can you believe it, the epitome of the type of question students ask. When we talk about the epitome of a concept or an object, we are…
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Get by
Word of the Day: Get by If you go to university or attend some other form of postsecondary education, you do so because you want to do more than get by. What do I mean by that? I mean that you want to make money. When you get by, you can live and feed yourself but…
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Lost cause
WotD: Lost cause Before we can understand what a lost cause is, we need to know what a cause is. A cause is a socially valuable principle or a reason for doing something. For example, a cause could be providing free health care for those who cannot afford it, and the reason for doing this is that…
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Wishful thinking
WotD: Wishful thinking Today is Monday! This is going to be the best week of your life! You’ll get that promotion you’ve always wanted, win the lottery and find ¥50,000 between the sofa cushions. Then again, it could all be wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is thinking or talking about bizarre things happening in the future as…
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Too good to be true
Proverb: Too good to be true Have you ever seen an advertisement on TV for a weight loss solution that seemed too good to be true? Yes, sure, you have. Whether it’s a miracle pill, fat-burning tea or the next new exercise doodad that’ll cause the fat to fall off your body miraculously, we’ve all seen these too-good-to-be-true adverts on…
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Turn the tables
Idiom: Turn the tables There are times in life when we have to cut our losses and accept defeat. However, we should only do this after we have explored all of our options and tried every possible way to turn the tables. When the tables have turned, you have moved from a position of weakness to a…
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Pipe dream
WotD: Pipe dream Have you ever had a pipe dream? I mean the kind of hope where you had a private island all to yourself. A dream in which there was no need to work anymore, so you traded in crowded train rides for a dugout canoe, the cold, hard sidewalk for a soft private…
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Without a hitch
English Phrase: Without a hitch Wouldn’t it be great if we could go through life without a hitch? That would be the ultimate is a stress-free life. The only difficulty is that thinking we can go through life without experiencing any problems is just a pipe dream. A hitch is another way to say a problem.…
