 |
| Skillful 3, page 37 |
On page 37 of our text, Bixby and Scanlon introduce the topic of fire, which is again the title of of the unit. As usual, they open with a large photograph and some discussion points.
_______________________________________
However, this time, instead of inviting us to discuss a couple of questions, they begin with an exercise checking the actual meanings of several English sayings that talk about fire.
These English sayings are:
- to play with fire = "to become involved in a dangerous situation"
- to jump out of the frying pan into the fire = "to go from one bad situation to a worse one"
- Where there's smoke there's fire. = "If something bad is being said about someone or something, it's probably partly true."
and - to come under fire = "to be criticized"
- Do you have any sayings about fire in your first language? What are they? Explain the meaning.
- Think of a story, situation or experience that can be explained by one of the expressions above. Use the expressions to explain it to a partner.
You have 10 minutes. Go!
___________
Reference
Do you have any sayings about fire in your first language? What are they? Explain the meaning.
ReplyDeleteIn my language, there is the proverb is that "Don't play with fire" which mean 'do not involve in dangerous situation.
Think of a story, situation or experience that can be explained by one of the expressions above. Use the expressions to explain it to a partner.
For example, in the Thai TV series, the main actress want to revenge a group of people who did something bad to her when she was child and those people are the mafias. so her friend remind her that "Don't play with fire", it will make you hurt.
I often come under fire from my relatives, who greatly dislike some of my political opinions. It's mainly my old uncles who are like this, and my mother. They think Australia should not welcome in new immigrants, especially immmigrants who are not white. They get upset when I point out that our own family are fairly recent immigrants! We have only been in Australia for three generations. Had the same policy been in place 120 years ago when our ancestors fled economic hardship and oppressive politics in northern Italy, we would not now exist in Australia, or anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the one that says, "Where there's smoke there's fire." This is often false I think. An example that comes to mind is the shocking pizzagate scandal of Democrat involvement in paedophile activity from a takeaway pizza shop during the recent US election. As far as I can tell this was pure fantasy from a sick mind. It was also so bizarre and totally without any sound supporting evidence that only idiots would beleive it, but apparently there are no shortage of such idiots in the US, and I read on the BBC News a couple of days ago that one of these idiots went to the suspected shop with intent to kill the owner!
"Where there's smoke, there's fire," seems false to me. More often, where there's smoke there's a liar trying to burn someone's good reputation. Of course, there is often some guilt in cases where there is not enough evidence to prove guilt in a court. For example, I'm pretty sure that there is some basis to some of the stories told about Hillary Clinton, but so many others are so unbelievable that I would only believe the one's for which I know solid evidence has been presented.
The proverb "To play with fire" is almost exactly the same as Thai word.
ReplyDeleteThe proverb in Thai word is don't play with fire which mean don't put yourselves into the dangerous situation.
For example, when I want to marry with a bad boy who don't want to have a family with who ever. In this situation, my friends will tell me that don't play with fire. They mean don't put myself into dangerous situation because at the end I'll regret from my action.
How many bad boys have you wanted to marry?
DeleteIt sounds fun to me, but I agree it's playing with fire.
In Thai idiom about fire, fire means something that is dangerous or worst, for example, "ไฟในอย่านำออก ไฟนอกอย่านำเข้า" means you do not tell others people about family's bad things and ignore people's gossip about your family.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any sayings about fire in your first language? What are they? Explain the meaning.
ReplyDeleteDo not play with fire. = do not relate with dangerous situations or people because they can lead you to injuries, lose moneys and have extremely bed experiences.
Think of a story, situation or experience that can be explained by one of the expressions above. Use the expressions to explain it to a partner.
You do not join with dangerous situations or people that can damage your physical and mental.
Yes there is a saying about the fire in my language: Tussock moths are flying toward the fire. It is analogy to the people that get themselves into troubles, even though they have known the troubles they would face. In the same way, the moths have known that flying to the fire, they would die. Still the moths still fly to the fire. It is a typical ignorant actions. Another proverb is a little water cannot beat the fire.
ReplyDeleteNormally we use the former expression in stock market. When a new investor come in the stock market without any knowledge. We will say they are the moths.
English has a similar saying about moths being attracted to a flame, which then burns them up. I don't here it much these days. Ae's example above seems to me to fit: some people seem drawn to bad boys or bad girls like moths to a flame.
DeleteI believe that there are many Thai saying about fire but what I remember is "ตัดไฟตั้งแต่ต้นลม" that means to stop something before it develops into something larger. For example, my dad always ตัดไฟตั้งแต่ต้นลม by checking everything before leave the house so that he won't forget things at home and have to drive back and get it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I incorrectly use these words but I can think of situation that my old friend in junior high-school she always makes things worst back then such as in science lap's class we were experiment something which we all afraid of is frog, alive frog but then she jumped out of the frying pan into the fire by letting frog out of container so after that we have to collect them up by our hands! whereas at first we didn't even have to touch them...
I want to get wifi controlled air conditioning so I stop having to do this. I've sometimes walked out of my home friends for a meal, and when we're down the soi a bit, I think: "Did I turn the air conditioning off?" I don't do it that often, but it's still annoying that I occasionally have to walk back to feel at ease.
Delete