List of idioms and fixed phrases with their definitions

1. Blue – collar worker – manual worker.

2. White – collar worker – office worker (non – manual).

3. Blue – chip company – a large well-established company, with considerable assets whose shares investors regard as a low – risk investment.

4. Black economy – activities which are performed in an economy which go unrecorded and hence do not appear in a country’s official national income accounts.

5. Greenback – a unit of money in the USA (dollar).

6. to be green – to be inexperienced

7. to be in the red – to have spent more money than you have in the bank, to be in debt.

8. to be in the black – to have some money in the bank, to be in credit.

9. Once in a blue moon – rarely, almost never.

10. White elephant – something that you no longer need and that is not useful any more, although it cost a lot of money.

11. In black and white – clear and simple, in print or in writing.

B. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word:

(scarce, creator, of, stake, about, reflection, exploration, by)

1. Only a handful ____ people attended the meeting. 2. A great number of students are potty ____ business studies. 3. When resources available to meet our wants are ____, we have to make choices. 4. The performance of machine operation will be judged _____ efficiency, output, costs. 5. He admired his ________ in the mirror. 6. He was the ______ of some know-hows in the industry. 7. Space ______ encouraged many countries to develop hi-tech sectors of their economies. 8. Foreign investors now have a 30% ______ in the company.

C. Open the brackets in the following sentences:

Gardens are the only opportunity for most people (создавать) something that is theirs. In Britain, where more than 15 per cent of the population has a conservatory, and where there is a specially established (благотворительное общество) with gardens and education (центры) gardening is a national (развлечение). Because of the (нехватка) of land, the social status in UK has always been seen (с точки зрения) land. The British are (помешаны на) planting. But the British garden is all about experiencing nature (а вовсе не) controlling it.

IV. Grammar Review: Past Perfect and Past Simple.

A. Model: “The Spectator” advocated a particular British taste as distinct from the French and Dutch gardens that had influenced the previous century.

Combine the sentences substituting “then” by the word given in brackets like this: