Be on the ball

 Meaning:

• When you're on the ball, you are quick to understand and to react to things.

Example sentence:

I apologize for not being on the ball today. I had a bad night and I can't concentrate.



Questions for you to answer:

1. What things should a person avoid doing when he or she is not on the ball?
2. Do you drive when you're not on the ball?
3. When do you feel most 'on the ball'?
4. What's your theory about the origin of the idiom? Would you be surprised to hear that it might have something to do with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich?

Know something like the palm of one's hand

Meaning:

• If you know someone or something like the palm of your hand, you know them very well.

Note: You can also say 'like the back of my hand.'


Example sentence:

Don't lie to me! I know you did it. I know what you are capable of. I know you like the palm of my hand.



Questions for you to answer:

1. Would you say that you know somebody like the palm of your hand?
2. Is there a poem, movie, or a book you like so much that you know it like the palm of your hand?
3. Is there a place in the world you know like the palm of your hand?
4. What can someone's palm tell us about them?

Paper over the cracks

Meaning:

• If you try to paper over the cracks, you try to hide faults or difficulties, often in a hasty or not very successful way.

Example sentence:

They thought they had solved the problem but they had actually only papered over the cracks.



Questions for you to answer:

1. What happens when you just paper over the cracks?
2. Have you recently heard of political actions that just tried to paper over the cracks?
3. Do you think it's good to paper over the cracks in a relationship?

Run off in all directions

Meaning:

• If people run off in all directions, they behave in a totally confused manner; they try to do everything at once.
• It means to set out to do something or go somewhere in an aimless and disorganized fashion.

Example sentence:

Stop running off in all directions. There's no need to hurry. Calm down and start concentrating.


Questions for you to answer:

1. Can you focus your energy in stressful situations or do you tend to run off in all directions?
2. Do you find it irritating when people run off in all directions?
3. What do you say/how do you react when somebody's running off in all directions?

Shake a leg!

Meaning:

• You say this when you want to tell people to hurry up.

Example sentence:

Come on then, shake a leg! We'll miss the bus. I don't want to be late for school again.



Questions for you to answer:

1. Are you the one who often has to say 'Shake a leg!'?
2. Does/did you mum often have to say this in the morning?
3. How do you react when somebody asks you to hurry up?