SELF STUDY 11
Task 1. Vocabulary
Exercise 1. Complete the idioms in the sentences below with the words in the
box.
end eye
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1 Small talk is one way to break the
…..ice….
when meeting someone for the first
time.
2 I was thrown in at the deep . . .. . . . . . when my
company sent me to run the
German
office. I was only given two days' notice to get everything ready.
3 We don't see eye to . . ... . . . .. . with our US parent company about punctuality.
We have very different ideas about what being 'on time' means. It's a question of
culture.
4 I got into hot . . . . . . .. . . with my boss for wearing casual clothes to the meeting
with the potential Japanese customers.
5 I really put my. . . . . . . . . . . . in it when I met our Spanish partner. Because I was
nervous, I said 'Who are you?' rather than 'How are you?'.
6 I get on like a house on . . . . . . . . .. . . with our Polish agent; we like the same
things and have the same sense of humour.
7 When I visited
China for the first time, I was like a fish out of. . . . . . . . .
Everything was.so different, and I couldn't read any of the signs!
8 My first meeting with our overseas clients was a real . . .. . . . . . . . . -opener. I
hadn't seen that style of negotiation before.
Exercise 2. Match the idioms in Exercise A (1-8) to the correct meanings (a-h)
a) given a difficult job to do without preparation
b) quickly have a friendly relationship with someone
c) feel uncomfortable in an unfamiliar
situation
d) say or do something without thinking carefully, so that you embarrass or upset
someone
e) disagree with someone
f) an experience where you learn something surprising or something you did not
know before
g) make someone you have just met less nervous and more
willing to talk
h)
get into trouble
