English Society

Literary Magazine May-June Issue

Idioms and Proverbs

What are idioms?

An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own that

cannot be understood from the meanings of its

individual words.

Examples:

- To put all one’s eggs in one basket means to depend

totally on the success of one particular plan

- To hedge ones’ bets means to act to protect oneself

against possible failure, loss, criticism etc.

What are proverbs?

A proverb is a short popular saying that gives advice about how people should

behave or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Examples:

- Don’t cry over spilled milk means not to regret something that's already happened

and that you can't change

- A stitch in time saves nine means a little work today can save a lot of work later on

The difference between idioms and proverbs?

Like idioms, proverbs often have a meaning that is greater than the meaning of the

individual words put together, but in a different way than idioms. The literal meaning

of an idiom usually doesn’t make sense. Both of them can be put in a literary context

as well, for example in a poem.

Reference: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/blog.php?action=ViewBlogArticle&ba_id=365

Mending Walls

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing: 5

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made, 10

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go. 15

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”

We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 20

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

Quote Sharing 3C Karen Wong

My apple trees will never get across 25

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it 30

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, 35

That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there,

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. 40

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.” 45

Robert Frost

Good fences make good neighbours

(Line 30 & 45)

How much do you know about your neighbours? And how often do you communicate with

them, besides the occasional greeting outside your homes? This proverb, “good fences make

good neighbours”, offers us another perspective on how we should treat our neighbours.

A literal definition of the proverb is that it is easier to be friendly with your neighbour if

neither of you trespasses upon the other's property. We remain better friends if we do not see

too much of one another. Our neighbour does not live in our house and we do not live in his.

If your neighbour can go in and out of your home freely, then there is always the chance that

they might do something, no matter whether accidentally or purposefully, against your wishes.

A fence between the properties will eliminate the chance that they may trespass into

something that you do not want to share.

You may think that this proverb is an oxymoron, that it is contradictory in nature. How can

neighbours come together if they are divided by fences? Despite its strangeness, a version of

this proverb exists in many different cultures and languages. Even Benjamin Franklin is

known to have said, “Love thy neighbour, yet don’t pull down your Hedge.” However, the

most notable use of this proverb comes from a poem written by the famous poet Robert

Frost – Mending Wall. In the poem, two neighbours walk along their dividing fence each

spring to mend whatever has fallen off. The speaker does not understand the purpose of the

fence; however, his neighbour merely repeats the phrase, “Good fences make good

neighbours.” The speaker has no choice but to continue this ritual with his neighbour each

year despite believing that mending the wall is a waste of time. This poem emphasises the

confusion behind this proverb, showing the different attitudes concerning the treatment of

neighbours.

So what does this proverb really mean? Actually, hedges or fences between properties are not

just physical barriers; they are a reminder to both owners that a good neighbour should never

be obtrusive. It is better for people to mind their own business and to respect the privacy of

others. For example, your neighbours should not have full knowledge of your lives and what

goes on in your household. With a fence between neighbours, you can each maintain your

privacy and avoid unnecessary ill feelings.

I think this proverb does not only apply to our neighbours, but also to different interpersonal

relationships that we have in our daily lives. There have to be different levels of boundaries in

all relationships, which would constitute a personal fence. Not unlike an actual fence, it

should be low enough to allow communication between the two people while keeping some

things out. On the other hand, we must be careful not to build a stone wall between each other

that cuts off all communication. So don’t feel awkward if you don’t seem to know much about

Quote Sharing 3C Karen Wong

your neighbour. Respect each other’s boundaries and an occasional greeting will be just fine.

Book Recommendations 6B Gladys Lau

1984

By George Orwell

A literary political and dystopian fiction about people under

the rule of a tyrannical government.

Under the rule of the Big Brothers, people living in the Oceanian

province have no freedom of any kind. The omnipresence of the

government results in surveillance of the people. Angst, anger and

agony - emotions of the rebellious Winston Smith who lived under such tyranny,

attempting a coup d’etat and defying a government that advocated “2 + 2 = 5”.

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

By VS Ramachandran & Sandra Blakeslee

An encounter with an ingenious and intriguing exploration

of neuroscience.

The brain is an important organ in our body and the book presents

a fascinating look at how it works. Ramachandran’s exploration

explores how the right and left hemispheres “cooperate” to create

the world as we know it，why some blind patients can rotate a letter

by the correct angle to post it into a slot they cannot see, and even

why some people believe in God, truly demystifying our mystic brains.

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

By Michael J. Sandel

A must-read for students who enjoy exploring philosophical,

ethical and legal issues.

Sandel’s work addresses a series of alternative theories of justice,

leading us to explore some of the most vexing issues nowadays –

same-sex marriage, abortion, physician-assisted suicide etc. Lively

and thought-provoking, it enables us to have a surer sense of

philosophy that makes better sense of moral dilemmas in our daily

lives, ranging from our convictions to civic questions.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

By Oliver Sacks

A collection of authentic and deeply moving stories

about patients suffering from neurological diseases.

It may sound funny if one mistakes his wife for a hat, yet

this is exactly the agony of these special types of

patients –worse still, their diseases can seldom be cured.

With the eloquence and emotions of a literary author, Dr

Sacks describes the astonishing behaviour of his patients

and how they struggle to cope with life.

Short Story

In a Wink of an Eye By Mark J. Howard

Palmer pulled aside the lapel of her lab coat and tore open her shirt underneath. She

winced and almost yelped in agony as the material pulled away from the wound in her

shoulder, but what she saw stole her breath. The area around the wound, where the

shard of penoirium had lodged, was becoming transparent. She could clearly see the

full length of the shard of crystal deep in her flesh, she could even see small pieces of

cloth in the wound, torn from her clothing and driven into her by the speeding shard,

but around it was nothing. She pulled off her coat and shirt and Eileen gasped. The

technicians and scientist in the suite stopped what they were doing and gazed at

Palmer in astonishment. Her entire left shoulder and most of her left flank were

invisible. Around the edges of these areas, the internal structure and workings of

Palmer’s body were revealed in plain sight. Whatever was happening to her, it was

spreading quickly.

She put her right hand to her left shoulder, it was still there and she could not only feel

it but also feel with it. Her left forearm seemed to be hanging in midair, and even as

everyone watched helplessly the transparency advanced and accelerated until

Professor Beck Palmer was rendered completely invisible. Eileen talked to Beck for a

while longer over the intercom, but she got weaker and weaker until, finally, Professor

Palmer stopped talking altogether. Soon after, the clothes she wore, which had seemed

to hang in midair, suddenly fell to the ground as if the body within them had turned to

mist.

***

Expansion. Wild. Giddy. She is still Beck Palmer, she knows that. She knows it, but it

hardly matters. Everything is stretched out before her. Everything and everywhen. She

can watch electrons dance on her fingertips, hold galaxies in the palm of her hand.

She is aware of every beating heart in the universe, every heart that has beaten and

every heart that will beat. She is everywhere, and she is nowhere, and she understands

it all.

The universe had been empty, mindless, and yet every part of it was intricately

interconnected like a huge brain, but without consciousness or thought. A Titanic,

complex, unknowing automaton. A machine made of galaxies. The penoirium, it was

all about the penoirium. This substance wanted to be everywhere at once, that was its

natural state. For want of a better term, it was alive. That’s why it had been so easy to

manufacture, it wanted to exist. And it wanted sentience. The penoirium itself had

caused the accident, had engineered its own birth and swept Palmer along with it.

Now they are one, and she can stand on the shores of a methane sea under a purple

sky on a planet so far away from Earth that it will never be known, watch the mating

rituals of animals that became extinct long before even our own sun was formed,

understand civilizations that span entire galactic clusters and even, from time to time,

revisit a beautiful young genius as she begins to speculate about a crystalline

metamaterial and the extraordinary properties it might possess.

THE END.

Reference:http://youwriteon.com/books/samplechapters.aspx?bookguid=decd1e6c-cbc2-4044-b5b

9-209e9f07ab72

Games Corner

Can you match all the paradoxical proverbs below?

- A paradox is something exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects.

Reference: http://lexicon.reachoutblogs.com/2009/09/paradoxical-proverbs.html

Out of sight, out of mind You cannot teach an old dog new tricks

Clothes make the man Strike while the iron is hot

Look before you leap Fools seldom differ

You are never too old to learn It is better to be safe than sorry

The pen is mightier than sword Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it The squeaky wheel get the grease

Wise men think alike Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today

Do it well or not at all Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Silence is golden Half a loaf is better than none

Nothing ventured, nothing gained Too many cooks spoil the broth

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth All good things comes to those who wait

Time and tide wait for no man There is no such thing as a free lunch

Many hands make light work Don’t judge a book by its cover

The best things in life are free A word to the wise is sufficient

Talk is cheap Action speaks louder than words

Selected Idioms

Flash as a rat with a gold tooth

Origin: Austrailia

Meaning:

An ostentatious person who tries hard to

impress people by their appearance or

behavior.

Example:

In spite of the superficial smartness, he is

merely flash as a rat with a gold tooth to

those who know him.

Like collecting frogs in a bucket

Meaning:

A task that is difficult to control or

coordinate

Example:

In all the 007 movies, agent James

Bond always manages to successfully

carry out missions that are like collecting

frogs in a bucket without failure.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

Meaning:

If you are given something, a present or

a chance, you should not waste it by

being too critical or examining it too

closely

Example:

Your parents bought you a new phone

for your birthday, but you want the

latest iPhone? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!