Episode 37 - Animal Idioms - Part One

ESL in Ho Chi Minh City

-Pre-listening exercise- Match the animals with their group name. Example - A school of .... fish A colony of... cattle A pack of..... gorillas A pod of...... beavers A gaggle of... ants A swarm of.... wolves A family of... bees A herd of..... rats A flock of.... ants A band of..... birds A plague of... geese Paragraph exercise I have a brother. He’s 2 years older than me. When we were kids, we looked like two peas in a pod although we were not twins. He wouldn’t say boo to a goose and never horsed around. However, my brother grew up to be the black sheep of the family. He drank like a fish, ate like a horse and smoked like a chimney. Birds of a feather flock together and he hung out with guys just like him. He became violent and we fought like cat and dog all the time. Since he was not a smart cookie and also all fingers and thumbs; he had to do donkey’s work to earn money. He could never make ends meet, so he always bugged my mom for extras. Tired of the chickenfeed he received for his work, he decided to sell hard drugs. My mom smelt a rat but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She watched him like a hawk. Therefore, he flew the nest, moving in with his girlfriend. Every dog has its day. My brother’s business was good for a few days. Then on a fateful day when it rained cats and dogs, he was caught red-handed. His lover left him like a rat deserting a sinking ship. With the amount of drug he had on him, he could go to jail for donkey’s years. He’s no spring chicken; by the time he gets out of jail, he would have been in his late thirties. My mother went to visit him last week. He looked like something the cat dragged in.We are having butterflies in our stomach waiting for his trial. Although we are not as thick as thieves, I put aside a nest egg to buy him food every week. After all, he’s my flesh and blood. -Reading comprehension- How many idioms that deal with money subject are there? Do you know other money idioms? How many idioms are related to family and people in the family?