Prime Time 7, Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks

10 Spot on language Shakespeare introduced around 1,500 new words into the English language, more than all other poets of his lifetime combined. He used Latin, French, Greek, Italian and even Dutch words to coin verbs, nouns and adjectives such as “manager” and “misquote” (from Latin), “dialogue” (from Greek) or “luggage” (from Dutch). However, his creativity did not stop here – from existing English words he formed new ones, such as “eyeball”, and from new words only recently integrated into English, such as “assassin”, he formed newer ones – “assassination”. Sometimes he just made words up from scratch, such as “buzzer”, a synonym for gossiper. But Shakespeare also coined a number of phrases that have become everyday expressions in English. Expressions coined by Shakespeare a) Match the expressions in the left column with the explanations in the right column. Expression You use this expression … 1. It is all Greek to me. A … to describe an attempt to accomplish something nearly impossible. 2. The game is up. B … to describe a person who makes his feelings obvious to everyone. 3. It makes your hair stand on end. C … for someone who is too friendly to another person. 4. There’s something in the wind. D … if something lasts indefinitely. 5. This is a wild goose chase. E … if you do not understand something at all. 6. That’s too much of a good thing. F … if something nice becomes unpleasant because you have more than you need. 7. He wears his heart on his sleeve. G … to express how you may react when something makes you feel afraid. 8. She kills him with kindness. H … when a deception is exposed. 9. Forever and a day. I … if you feel that something is not right. b) Which of the expressions from the list above could be used in the following situations? 1. I don’t really trust the committee’s decision. I think … . 2. John is extremely resentful. He’ll remember that … . 3. Do you realise that everyone knows what Sally thinks about this? She … . 4. I was looking forward to snow, but … – it’s April and I want sunshine. Writing: A dialogue Think of a situation in which these Shakespearean expressions might be used and write a short dialogue with them. Make sure that the quotations are part of the dialogue. 1  2  148 Shakespeare live Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eig ntum des Verlags öbv