Idioms Organiser: Organised By Metaphor, Topic, And Key Word IELTS Book

In English, we use idioms and phrasal verbs to express ourselves. Idioms are important words that don't come individually. Apparently, you have spent quite a while learning new words. Words, however, do not just come individually, they also come in expressions - in groups. Idioms are among the most common of these expressions.

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Idioms Organiser is an exceptional book teaching idioms with a highly organized system for intermediate and advanced students. Idioms Organiser is ideal for those students who are preparing for the FCE, CAE, Proficiency, and TOEFL exams. This book is valuable material as it can help you to boost your score in the IELTS speaking test with academic idioms which can leave an impressive mark on the examiner.

Introduction to Idioms Organiser - Jon Wright

Idioms Organiser takes this difficult section for students and organizes it in a way that students can understand it clearly. This book organizes the most important idioms in English in four sections:

• Areas of metaphor
• Individual metaphor
• Topics
• Key Words

These four sections of Idioms Organiser comprise many units. The first section Areas of Metaphor has 12 units and 1 review unit, Individual metaphor has 32 units and one review unit. Topics 38 units and one review unit and the last section keywords have 28 units and one review unit.

The Idiom organizer has an introductory unit before the main unit to give students an idea about the concept of the subject. The book also contains an answer key to help the students learn better. Idioms Organiser is a perfect reference tool for IELTS preparation.

Preview Of The Introductory Unit

1: What is an idiom?

An idiom is an expression with the following features:

1. It is fixed and is recognized by native speakers. You cannot make up your own!
2. It uses language in a non-literal – metaphorical – way.

The following are examples:

1. Tin up to my eyes at work at the moment.
2. At the meeting I felt a bit out of my depth.
3. I was over the moon when I heard she’d had twins!
4. It broke my mother’s heart to see her home burn to the ground.

If you are up to your eyes, you are very busy. If you are out of your depth, you might be in the sea, but you are more likely to be in a situation that you do not understand for some reason. If you are over the moon, you are extremely happy about something. If something breaks your heart, you are very sad about it.

In these examples, it is clear that the idiom is a whole expression. This is the traditional view of idioms. But there is a lot more language that is idiomatic. For example, there are lots of individual words with idiomatic uses. On page 3 we saw that catch has many more uses than the literal one of catching a fish. Here are more examples:

Task 1: Identify the idioms

Underline the idioms and idiomatic expressions in the following sentences:

1. I’m feeling a bit under the weather this morning.
2. We arrived in the nick of time.
3. I know London like the back of my hand.
4. Do you think you could pull a few strings for me?
5. I couldn’t get a word in edgeways.
6. I’m fed up with the rat race.
7. My father thought I would follow in his footsteps.
8. Hurry up! You’re cutting it a bit fine, aren’t you?
9. Let’s look on the bright side, shall we?
10. Come on. we can’t just sweep this under the carpet.

We are familiar with the idea of heavy rain causing a river to overflow and flood the surrounding area; crowds are often described as water and the same verb flood is used. The literal meaning of pile is a heap of something; piles of money, however, simply means lots of money. A hot potato is not for eating; it means a controversial issue. An uncle at sea works on a boat; if you are at sea, it means you are in a situation which you do not understand and where you cannot cope.

Idioms Organiser takes a broad view of idioms. In this book, you will practice common idioms such as the black sheep of the family, but you will also practice the huge area of idiomatic usage where words are used with non-literal – metaphorical – meanings.

Commonly Used IELTS Idioms

Idioms can be used in the IELTS Speaking test and can help you get a higher score because you are using more idiomatic language. To have an understanding of how and when to use these idioms, one should listen to the native speakers. Most of the time idioms are used informally and hence should never be used in the IELTS writing test.

These are a few IELTS Idioms that are used most commonly:

Idioms Organiser: Organised By Metaphor, Topic, And Key Word – Jon Wright - Check PDF