Colloquial English : Animal Idioms

For the next in our Language Snippets series, here's an exercise focusing on idiomatic English which you can use as a filler with your more advanced classes - or if you're not a native speaker, which you can use to check your own understanding of idiomatic English.
Match the idioms and their meanings :

1. When Anna said something about her sister's surprise birthday party, she let the cat out of the bag.
2. Paula is in the doghouse with her mother because she forgot her birthday.
3. When George asked Karen how she knew that William was getting married, she said that she heard it straight from the horse's mouth.
4. Helen always listens to the recordings of her French course while she does the ironing. That way, she can kill two birds with one stone.
5. Linda moved to the countryside because living in the city had become such a rat race.
6. Even though Mrs Scott is no spring chicken, she still runs five miles a day.


a. Involving a fast, hectic pace of life
b. From the person involved.
c. Save time by doing two things at once.
d. Revealed a secret.
e. No longer young.
f. In trouble.


Answers : 1d 2f 3b 4c 5a 6e
Acknowledgement
Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by eelviss, via flickr.


Further Reading 

Nattinger and DeCarrico, Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching, OUP


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