ACTIVITY 25. WHAT ELEMENT?

To prepare you to fully understand the text you are about to read, review the elements of a short
story by doing the next activity.

Rearrange the letters of the words below.

1. TRACREHAR - ______________
2. TLOP - ______________
3. GITETNS - ______________
4. TCFIOCNL - ______________
5. ETLIT - ______________

English idiom or idiomatic expressions are Greek in origin. The word idiom means “a
private citizen, something belonging to a private citizen, personal,” and, by extension, something
individual and peculiar. Idiomatic Expressions, then, conform to no laws or principles describing
their formation. They may also violate grammar or logic or both and still be acceptable because
the phrase is familiar, deep-rooted, widely used, and easily understandable- for the native born.
“How do you do?” is, for example, an accepted idiom, although an exact answer would be absurd.

There are many idiomatic expressions in our language. One is that several words are
combined which lose their literal meaning and express something very remotely suggested such
as ; birds of a feather, blacklist, lay up, toe the line, make out, bed of roses, dark horse, heavy
hand, open house, read between the lines, no ax to grind, hard row to hoe.

A second statement about idioms is that parts of the human body have suggested many of
them: burn one’s fingers, all thumbs, fly in the face of, stand on one’s own feet, keep body and
soul together, keep one’s eyes open, step on someone’s toes, rub elbows with, get one’s back up,
keep one’s chin up.

A third generalization is that hundreds of idiomatic phrases contain adverbs or prepositions

with other parts of speech. Here are some examples: walk off, walk over, walk-up; run down, run
in run off, run out; get nowhere, get through, get off.

agree to a proposal

on a plan

with a person

contend for a principle

with a person

against an obstacle

Usage should conform to the idiomatic word combinations that are generally acceptable.
Examples of Idiomatic expressions are : accord with ,according to , acquaint with ,adverse to , and
aim to prove.
ACTIVITY 26. WORKING WITH IDIOMS

Choose the appropriate idiomatic expressions to be used in the following sentences. Write
a piece of cake, odds and ends, pros and cons or ups and downs in the blanks provided.

1. The teacher asked us to talk about the ___________ of industrial development.

2. Don’t worry about the problems you have in your business .You know there are
always ___________ in business.
3. The police found nothing special in the house of the criminal as he had taken all the
important documents with him leaving just _____________.
4. If you think that doing this math problem is __________, just try it.

Choose the appropriate word to complete the meaning of the idiom. Write ocean, music,
rags, cold and pie in the blanks provided.

1. All these promises the politicians make are just ____ in the sky.
2. The small amount of money donated is just a drop in the _____ compared to the
large sum of money needed.
3. He has been successful in life. He went from ____ to riches.
4. They had a dispute yesterday. That‘s why she gave him a ___ shoulder.
5. I had to face the ____ all by myself, although I was not the only responsible for the
problem.

ACTIVITY 27. IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS

Guess what idiomatic expressions are used below and give the correct meaning. After giving the
correct meaning, use them in the sentences.

1. Bata makes hay while the sun shines.___________

2. The wife of Anpu was beaten black and blue._______
3. Knowing the wife’s dishonesty, blood pours into his face._______
4. After killing the wife, Anpu was blue in the face.__________
5. Bata had made an easy way out to the mountains.________
6. In good faith, Bata supported his brother Anpu.________
7. Anpu felt a pain in the neck when he heard his wife’s explanation.________
8. She bent her knees for forgiveness._______
9. Anpu’s wife accepted the dose of her own medicine.________
10. Bata kept company with god- Ra to seek consolation._______
11. Anpu took the law into his hands.________
 THE TWO BROTHERS

Egyptian Folktale

Once there were two brothers. Anpu was the elder, and Bata was the younger. When their
parents died, Anpu was already married and had a house of his own, so he took his little brother
with him and treated him like his son. When the little brother grew to be a young man, he became
an excellent worker. He did the plowing. He harvested the corn, and there was no one his equal in
the whole land. Behold, the spirit of the god was within him.

Every morning, the younger brother followed his oxen and worked all day in the fields, and
every evening, he returned to the house with vegetables, milk, and wood. He laid all these before
his elder brother, and he took with him his bread, and he drove the cattle into the field.

Because Anpu loved his younger brother very much, his wife became very jealous and she
wanted to destroy Bata. One day, when Anpu and Bata were in the fields, they needed some corn,
so Anpu sent Bata home to get some. The younger brother found the wife combing her hair and
said to her, “Get up and give me some corn that I may run to the field for my elder brother is in a
hurry. Do not delay.”

At eventide, Anpu returned home earlier than his brother because Bata had much work to
do in the fields. Anpu was met by his wife, who was crying bitterly. She showed him her arms and
legs which he had painted black and blue and accused Bata of having beaten her up. She
pretended to be in great pain. She did not give him water to wash his hands with. She did not light
the fire for him. She pretended that she was very sick.

Anpu became very angry. He sharpened his knife and waited for Bata in the stable.

When the sun went down, Bata came home as usual, loaded with herbs, milk and wood. As
he entered the door, he saw the feet of his brother and the sharp knife hanging by his side. The
brother sprang from him and Bata fled praying to the god Ra. “My good Lord! Save me from death,
thou who divines the evil from the good.” Ra heard his cry. He made a river flow between one
brother and the other and filled it with crocodiles.

Bata asked his elder brother, “Why do you seek to kill me? Am I not your brother and have
you not always treated me as if you were my father? Has not your wife been as mother to me?
Now since you want to kill me, I shall go to the Valley of the Acacia.”

Anpu answered, “Why did you beat up my wife and almost kill her.”

Bata answered, “I did not do such thing. Have I told you that I have always looked upon her
as my mother?”

So, Anpu went home. He found his wife near the river washing off the black and blue dye
with which she had painted herself. Filled with great anger, Anpu killed his wife and cast her to the
dogs. Then, he sat down, poured ashes on his head and mourned for his younger brother.

Bata reached the Valley of Acacia. Since there was no one with him, he slew wild beasts
for food, built himself a house and met the Nine Gods who knew of his innocence and goodness.
Ra said to the god Khunumu, “Behold, frame a woman for Bata that he may not remain alone.”So
Khunumu made for Bata a wife to dwell with him. She was indeed more beautiful than any other
woman in the whole land. She was like a goddess, and Bata loved her very much.
 Bibliography contains a list of books or articles, or both, relating to a particular subject. In
a research paper, a bibliography is an alphabetical list, sometimes grouped into
categories, containing the names of all works quoted from or generally used in its
preparation. Every formally prepared research paper should contain a bibliography
placed at the end and begun on a separate page.

Bibliographical items should be arranged correctly and consistently. Let’s take a look at the
following examples below.

Books
One Author
Tompkins, Gail E. 2000. Teaching Writing (3rd ed.) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Two Authors
Dorn, Linda J. & Soffos, Carla. 2005. Teaching for Deep Comprehension. Maine:
Stenhouse Publishers.
Several Authors
Lauengco, Aurea, et.al. 1999. English CV for High Schools (3rd ed.). Makati: Bookmark
Inc.
Encyclopedia
Helms, Ronald. “Electric Light”. World Book Encyclopedia. 1995 ed.
Magazine Article
Hackworth, Col. David H. “Terms of Forgiveness.” Newsweek. 24 Apr. 1995: 38-40.
Journal
Cline, C.L. " Quasi Adventures in Literary Scholarship. " Texas Quarterly. 20 (1977) 36-
42.
Newspaper
Hunt, Albert R. "Clinton Needs Fewer Reinventions and More Consistency.
World Wide Web
Abilock, Debbie. "Choose The best search engine for your information.”22 March
>http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~debbie/library/research/adviceengine.html> 12 Apr.
1999
What have you observed in the examples above? In writing the format of bibliographical
entries, what are the things you are supposed to remember?
Let’s try answering the questions below.
POINTS TO REMEMBER:
1. All names of authors should start with the family name, followed by the first name.
2. For two authors, the second author‘s name should be written with the first name first
and not with the family name.
3. For several authors, use the words et .al. , to mean many or several authors.
4. All titles of the books, magazines, encyclopedia and newspaper articles should be
underlined.
5. Titles of topics of magazines, newspaper articles and encyclopedia must be enclosed in
quotation marks.
6. Observe correct punctuation marks, such as period, after the author’s name, title of the
book, encyclopedia, magazines and newspaper articles .
7. Place a comma after the author’s family name to separate it from the first name and
use it also to separate it from the name of the publisher.