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This afternoon, I was taking a
cat nap and I had a dream that

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I was in the doghouse with my
boss. In the dream, the boss

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was yelling at me to get my
ducks in a row, and even though

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I'm very organized, I just clammed
up. Nevertheless, when I woke up,

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it was hard to get back to
work because I had ants in my

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pants. Let's study together. Welcome
to another Happy English podcast, coming to

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you from New York City. And
here's your English teacher, Michael. All

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right, thank you John, and
thanks everyone. It's Michael here from Happy

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English and I help people speak English
better. And this is Happy English Podcast

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Episode six sixty four are idioms with
animals. I love helping you learn idioms

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because using them makes your language more
colorful and more natural sounding. And today

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we're going to take a look at
some idioms with animals. Let's check them

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out. The first one is to
have ants in your pants. Can you

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imagine actually having ants in your pants? You'd be pretty uncomfortable, wouldn't you.

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Well, if you say that someone
has ants in their pants, it

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means they are restless, or anxious, or in some way unable to sit

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still. Here are some examples I
have ants in my pants and i can't

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focus on my work because I've been
waiting for the reply from my boss about

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my vacation request. Sarah has ants
in her pants because she's excited to go

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on vacation next week. Ted's got
ants in his pants because he's nervous about

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the presentation tomorrow next we have a
cat nap. They say that cats sleep

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a lot during the day, so
when you take a cat nap, you

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have a short sleep, usually in
the afternoon. For example, I'm going

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to take a cat nap before my
next meeting because i didn't sleep well last

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night. Kim likes to take a
quick cat nap after lunch because she says

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it makes her more productive. I
just took a cat nap, so I

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feel a bit more refreshed. Let
me ask you something. Are there ducks

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where you live. There are a
lot of ducks where I live, and

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when I see them walking with their
families, they look organized, like they're

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marching down the street in a row. Well, when someone has their ducks

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in a row, they are well
prepared and organized. Here are some examples

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we need to have our ducks in
a row. Regarding our marketing plan,

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before the meeting starts. The office
manager always has her ducks in a row.

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I guess that's why everything runs smoothly
in the office. The project was

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successful because we had our ducks in
a row and planned everything out in advance.

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Next is clam up. When a
clam is closed, it's really hard

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to get it open, right,
And so with that image, we say

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that somebody clams up. In other
words, when you clam up, you

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suddenly become quiet and refuse to speak. Maybe you want to say something,

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but you hold back from doing so. For example, at the party,

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Frank clammed up when I asked him
about his job. I wonder if he's

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a gangster. When the police arrived, the suspect clammed up. I tried

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to get her to talk about her
interests, but she clammed up and didn't

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say much. And finally, we
have in the dog house. A doghouse

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is a small house which is built
for a dog next to or behind the

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owner's house. Just imagine that you
did something wrong and your spouse or parent

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told you to stay in the doghouse. That would probably be an unpleasant experience.

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Right well, with that image in
mind, when you are in the

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dog house, you are in trouble
with someone. Here are some examples.

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Kenny forgot his anniversary and now he's
in the doghouse with his wife. Jack's

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been in the doghouse with his boss
ever since he missed the deadline. Will

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Smith was in the dog house when
he slapped Chris Rock in the face last

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year. Keep in mind the best
way to remember this and any vocabulary is

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to take the word or phrase,
write it in a sentence that's true for

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you or true in your world,
and then memorize your sentences. Well,

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that's it for today's English lesson.
I hope I'm not in the dog house.

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By the way, why don't you
join my podcast Learner's study group.

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There you can make new friends,
join me for live group coaching every week.

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Plus get the pdf, transcript and
audio download for every Happy English podcast

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in the past and in the future, and each episode now has exercises where

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you can practice this English point with
speaking and writing checked by me. Yeah.

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To learn more or to see the
example sentences from this lesson, just

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visit my Happy English dot com and
choose podcast lesson six sixty four. Remember,

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learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible and I'm here

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to help you on your journey.
This podcast is brought to you by Happy

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English. Please visit my Happy english
dot com. Show your support for Happy

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