Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Patrick Woodward.
Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they.
Speaker 1: Live, animals are everywhere, even when we cannot see them.
Speaker 1: There are bugs in the dirt, there are fish in
Speaker 1: the sea. Antarctica, the coldest desert in the world, is
Speaker 1: still home to millions of animals. There is even one animal,
Speaker 1: the tardigrade, that can survive in outer space.
Speaker 2: It is no wonder, then that people talk about animals
Speaker 2: a lot. This is true in every language, including English,
Speaker 2: but you may have noticed that many of these sayings
Speaker 2: make no sense. A Native English speaker may talk about
Speaker 2: flying pigs. They may say something about a wolf putting
Speaker 2: on the clothing of a sheep, as if animals wore clothes.
Speaker 1: Native English speakers often use idioms in their speech. Idioms
Speaker 1: are words and sayings where the meaning is not clear
Speaker 1: from the individual words. They are simply phrases that Native
Speaker 1: speakers say that makes sense to other native speakers, but
Speaker 1: these phrases are difficult for non native speakers to understand.
Speaker 2: So on this week's Spotlight, we are exploring seven common
Speaker 2: animal idioms. Most are not about animals at all, but
Speaker 2: using them will help you learn new words and sound
Speaker 2: like a native speaker.
Speaker 1: Our first animal idiom is the phrase the elephant in
Speaker 1: the room. People use this phrase when they are speaking
Speaker 1: about a subject that no one wants to talk about.
Speaker 1: The avoided subject is usually very important to talk about.
Speaker 1: It will be very clear as if it were a
Speaker 1: large gray animal sitting in the corner of the room.
Speaker 2: Imagine that two married people are throwing a party. Everyone
Speaker 2: who comes knows that these two are getting a divorce.
Speaker 2: The party is no fun. No one wants to start
Speaker 2: talking about their marriage difficulties. You might say that these
Speaker 2: problems are the elephant in the room. They are a
Speaker 2: huge issue. They affect everyone in the group, but no
Speaker 2: one wants to talk about them because they are too
Speaker 2: large or too strange to bring up.
Speaker 1: Our second animal idiom is to kill two birds with
Speaker 1: one stone. Do not worry, animal lovers, You do not
Speaker 1: need to kill anything to use this phrase. Instead, the
Speaker 1: phrase means to achieve many things in one attempt.
Speaker 2: Imagine that a woman needs to visit her sister. It
Speaker 2: is her sister's birthday, but the woman also owes her
Speaker 2: sister money. She can celebrate the birthday and pay the
Speaker 2: money back in one trip. So she might say that
Speaker 2: she is killing two birds with one stone by going.
Speaker 1: A third animal idiom is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Speaker 1: No wolves, fierce creatures like a wild dog or sheep
Speaker 1: are involved in this idiom. Instead, the phrase means that
Speaker 1: a person appears gentle but is not.
Speaker 2: This phrase first appeared in the Christian Bible. This Holy
Speaker 2: book often compares sheep to innocent people. A wolf will
Speaker 2: hunt sheep, but a sheep can sometimes tell when a
Speaker 2: wolf is coming. It can run away from the wolf.
Speaker 2: But if a wolf could make itself look like a sheep,
Speaker 2: the animal would not recognize its hunter. The wolf could
Speaker 2: kill and eat the sheep easily. Someone who is a
Speaker 2: wolf in sheep's clothing is similar. They fake meaning well
Speaker 2: when they do not.
Speaker 1: A fourth animal idiom is to take the lion's share.
Speaker 1: A lion is a large cat, much bigger than a person.
Speaker 1: To Native English speakers, the lion's share is the largest
Speaker 1: part of something. A person who has taken the lion's
Speaker 1: share of something received most of it.
Speaker 2: People often use this phrase in financial situations Imagine a
Speaker 2: group of people started a company, but one of these
Speaker 2: people spent more time, money, and effort. If the company's
Speaker 2: art's making money, he might expect a greater part of
Speaker 2: the profits. He would want the lion's share.
Speaker 1: This phrase comes from the Greek storyteller Esop, who lived
Speaker 1: around sixteen hundred BCE. In one of his stories, Esop
Speaker 1: tells about a hunting party between a lion and three
Speaker 1: animals that do not usually hunt, a cow, a goat,
Speaker 1: and a sheep. When the animals succeed, the lion takes
Speaker 1: the whole kill. He threatens the other animals if they
Speaker 1: try to stop him. This story taught that people should
Speaker 1: not partner with those who are more powerful than they are.
Speaker 1: The powerful person will always take the lion's share.
Speaker 2: A fifth animal idiom is all dressed up like a
Speaker 2: dog's dinner. This idiom is popular in the UK but
Speaker 2: not in the US. It means that a person is
Speaker 2: wearing very nice clothing.
Speaker 1: But there is also an insult in this, saying a
Speaker 1: dog's dinner is not very clean. A dog does not
Speaker 1: care how it looks when it eats. Calling someone a
Speaker 1: dog's dinner means a person who does not take care
Speaker 1: of how they look. So a person who is dressed
Speaker 1: up like a dog's dinner is presenting themselves differently than normal.
Speaker 1: They may even seem a bit foolish.
Speaker 2: A sixth animal idiom is the saying when pigs fly,
Speaker 2: do not worry. These large, four legged animals have not
Speaker 2: learned to leave the ground. Instead, a person who uses
Speaker 2: this saying means they will never do something. They may
Speaker 2: also be saying that an event will never happen.
Speaker 1: Imagine that a woman is afraid of airplane travel. Her
Speaker 1: son lives across the world. He wishes that she would
Speaker 1: come visit him, but he does not believe that his
Speaker 1: mother will ever find the courage. He may tell his
Speaker 1: friends that she will visit him. When pigs fly, no
Speaker 1: pig can fly on its own, so he's telling his
Speaker 1: friends that he does not believe it is possible.
Speaker 2: Our seventh and final animal idiom is a fish out
Speaker 2: of water. This saying means that a person is in
Speaker 2: a new, often unpleasant situation.
Speaker 1: For example, imagine a young boy is starting a new sport.
Speaker 1: He has never trained and knows very little about it.
Speaker 1: The only reason he is playing is because his friends do.
Speaker 1: At his first game, his inexperience will be clear. People
Speaker 1: watching may say that he looks like a fish out
Speaker 1: of water.
Speaker 2: This saying is so widespread in English that it is
Speaker 2: the name of a kind of story. A fish out
Speaker 2: of water story puts its main character in a new situation.
Speaker 2: Sometimes something bad happens to this person, maybe they go
Speaker 2: to another world or where their business veils. But often
Speaker 2: fish out of water stories are funny. They put a
Speaker 2: character in humorous situations.
Speaker 1: There are almost as many animal idioms in English as
Speaker 1: there are animals on the earth, but these are some
Speaker 1: of the most common. Using them might not help you
Speaker 1: talk about animals themselves, but these sayings will help you
Speaker 1: sound more like a native speaker. Practice them as much
Speaker 1: as you can, and use them with your friends.
Speaker 2: Do you have any interesting animal idioms in your language?
Speaker 2: What are they? You can leave a comment on our
Speaker 2: website at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and x You
Speaker 2: can also get our programs delivered directly do your Android
Speaker 2: or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
Speaker 1: was mitchyo Osaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 1: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
Speaker 1: called English Idioms Animals.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again or the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye,