Don't go round the bend!

Many expressions in English have something to do with towns and buildings. Here are some of them.

If you paint the town red, you celebrate very noisily in a pub or restaurant. When something is just up your street, it's exactly what suits you, but if you take the wrong turning, or you are off the track, you have made a mistake. If you have your back to the wall, you are fighting in a desperate situation and if you are banging your head against a brick wall, you are harming yourself with useless efforts. A tower of strength is someone who gives strength and courage to others, and a castle in Spain is an attractive but impossible idea. To be on the threshold of something is to be at the beginning of a new experience, and if something is just round the corner, it's very close. To drop a brick is to say something tasteless to someone, and to send someone to Coventry is to refuse to associate with them. To lay the foundations is to form a strong base for something, but to strike at the foundations is to cause damage to the base of something. If you explore every avenue, you examine every possibility, and if you go round the bend - you go mad!

Exercise

Now, see if you can put the appropriate expressions into each of these sentences.

1. John's working very hard to get the project finished, but I think he's _______________ _______ ______ _____________ __ ____________ ___________ because they'll never accept his ideas.

2. I've been _________________ ___________ ________________ but I just can't see an answer to the problem.

3. Susan was ___ _____________ ______ ____________________ during that difficult week - everyone turned to her for help.

4. Now we've finished all our exams, let's go out and ________ _______ _________ _________.

5. I'd love to do that job - it's _______ ________ __________ _____________.

6. I think we're _______ _______ _______________. This isn't getting us anywhere.

Answers

1 - banging his head against a brick wall	4 - paint the town red
2 - exploring every avenue	5 - off the track
3 - a tower of strength

Towns and Buildings

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