Базовый курс английского языка - Эккерсли К.Э.
ISBN 5-7871-0174-X
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Qpok 35
The Body
HOB: In most of the books that I have seen for learning English there's a lesson on "Parts of the Body" to give you all the vocabulary. Mr. Priestley has never given us a lesson like that.
LUCILLE: And a jolly good thing, too; I can't think of anything more boring.
OLAF: Besides we know all those words: head, arm, leg, nose. It would be a waste of time.
HOB: All the same I'm going to ask Mr. Priestley for a lesson like that.
* * *
(A little later. Hob has askedfor a lesson on "The Body ". Mr. Priestley
has listened to Hob's request and the objections of the other students.)
MR. PRIESTLEY: I think there is a way of letting Hob have the lesson he wants (after all, it's not often that he wants a lesson) and yet of not boring you all. There are a good many idioms, which may be new to you, belonging to "parts of the body", so what I suggest is this: Hob can give us the vocabulary, then any of you can supply an idiom, using the word Hob has given us. If none of you can give one, I'll try to do so. Is that all right?
PEDRO: I think that sounds a most interesting and useful idea.
MR. PRIESTLEY: Very good. Well, Hob, you can begin.
HOB: 1 have a head.
PEDRO: "Tom was head over heels in love with Helen."
FRI EDA: Hob can do good work, when he takes it into his head to try.
JAN: When you are in danger, the important thing is never to lose your head.
MR. PRIESTLEY: You are doing so well at this that I am afraid success may turn your heads. Go on, Hob.
HOB: 1 have a neck.
OLAF: I don't know who is going to win this competition in idioms; I think we are running neck and neck.
475 ¦
FRIEDA: I don't know many idioms, but I'll have a try. It's neck or nothing.
HOB: If you don't do better than that you'll get it in the neck1 from Mr. Priestley.
MR. PRIESTLEY: Continue, Hob.
HOB: I have two eyes.
LUCILLE: I can see that with half an eye.
OLAF: Will you accept a proverb, sir, instead of an idiom? If you will, I'll give you: "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."
MR. PRIESTLEY: Well, we may not see eye to eye about that, Olaf, but we'll let it pass.
JAN: I'm up to the eyes in work, but I want to find time to play football on Saturday.
FRIEDA: And when you see what a good footballer Jan is, it will make you open your eyes.
HOB: That's all my eye!2 Did I ever tell you the story of the man who was cross-eyed- and very bad-tempered?
He was hurrying along a crowded street one day and knocked into a man who was coming the opposite way.
"Why don't you look where you are going?" the cross-eyed man burst out angrily.
"And why don't you go where you are looking?" answered the other.
MR. PRIESTLEY: All right, Hob, but get on with the job.
HOB: I have a nose.
LUCILLE: And you like to poke your nose into other people's business.
HOB: You may turn up your nose at me, Lucille, but I'm bringing my cousin Belinda to our next party. Talk about a beauty! You'll need to keep an eye on your boy-friends or Belinda will put your nose out of joint.
MR. PRIESTLEY: Come on, Hob. Keep your nose to the grindstone and give us the next word.
1 This is slang.
2 Hob's idiom is slang.
HOB: I have (what Lucille hasn't) a heart. But when you ask me about
my homework, my heart goes into my mouth-and then goes into my boots.
LUCILLE: I'm sorry, Hob. I don't want you to take too much to heart what I said. I was only joking.
HOB: Of course, Lucille, so was 1.1 know there isn't a better-hearted person than you anywhere-and I say that with my hand on my heart.
MR. PRIESTLEY: Well, now that Lucille and Hob have had that little heart to heart talk, may we have another word, Hob?
HOB: There's my shoulder. That'll beat you.
(They are all silent)
MR. PRIESTLEY: That's a difficult one. I'd better take the burden of that on my shoulders (though I'm not so broad-shouldered as Olaf). But if we all put our shoulder to the wheel, we'll get over the difficulty.
HOB: I have a tongue-and I expect you often wish I'd hold it.
LUCILLE: Well, you have a sharp tongue at times, but I prefer people who are sharp-tongued to those who are too smooth-tongued.
JAN: I know another idiom, it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite say it.
MR. PRIESTLEY: There's a look on Jan's face that makes me think he's speaking with his tongue in his cheek. Give us another word, Hob.
HOB: I was going to say tooth (teeth) but I'd like to tell you a story first about a man who had false teeth. He went away for a holiday, and his wife, knowing how easily they can be lost if you are bathing in a rough sea, wrote to him, saying, "Take care not to wear your new teeth when you are bathing in the sea". He wrote back, "Why didn't you telegraph?"
M R. PRIESTLEY: Hob certainly works tooth and nail to get his stories told, doesn't he?
HOB: Well, I nearly missed telling you that one; I just got it in by the skin of my teeth. Now what about my ears? I'm listening for your answers with all my ears-and I'm not deaf.
JAN: "There are none so deaf as those who won't hear." (Proverb.)
