Idioms & Short Stories: The keys to natural English B1-C1 (Vocabulary Detective)

One of the biggest problems language learners face when moving from the classroom to the real world, is that native speakers don’t talk like textbooks. They break the rules and they play with words. They use slang and expressions that often seem to make no sense. And, what makes life even more difficult for the learner, this informal language is constantly changing as people invent new ways of expressing themselves. Idioms & Short Stories , is written to help intermediate and advanced learners of English take the first steps towards mastering informal English. It is the third in the Vocabulary Detective series, aimed mainly at autonomous learners but also as a resource for teachers. As with the first two volumes, The Vocabulary Detective and Look Back , it presents the material in the context of a series of short stories with highlighted idioms, including proverbs, expressions, collocations and phrasal verbs. The text is full of clues to help readers decipher the meaning and each short story is followed by a gap-fill exercise where they can check their understanding. Finally, there is a glossary and index which gives definitions and notes on usage as well as tips for memorising such as the etymology and popular songs which repeat idioms in the chorus. It is by no means exhaustive, a comprehensive dictionary would be a vast work and, given that informal English is constantly changing, would be out of date as soon as it was published. Rather, the aim of this book his to help learners recognise idiomatic and practise incorporating it as they go. The stories, which are all light-hearted and humorous are:
Scary night of lights
The first time
A bird in the hand
Life’s lessons
A piece of Advice
Taken for a fool
A date to remember
The one true thing