Some idiomatic phrases in English, often used in both spoken and written language, are very confusing! They don't even make sense when you first see them. However, using one of these phrases correctly when speaking or writing to an English speaker is very impressive and shows that you are comfortable with the language. Here are some wonderful and interesting British idioms. Use them wisely.

    When pigs fly!

This expression is one of my favorites and I use it all the time. It is used primarily when speaking, meaning that something is extremely unlikely or impossible. For example, "I will forgive him when pigs fly!" "When do you think you will get a gym membership, Lucy?" "When pigs fly!"

    A penny for your thoughts?

This question is used in a situation where someone appears thoughtful or is very quiet seeming lost in thought. But remember that you don't actually have to pay them a penny if they do tell you what is going on! For example, "You've been a bit quiet this evening, Pete. A penny for your thoughts?"

    It's the bee's knees

The phrase dates back to the 1920s, and refers to an extraordinary person, thing, idea, and so on. For example, "Try this chocolate. It's the bee's knees."

    To feel a bit under the weather

    I use this expression in many different situations but most use it to refer to feeling ill, or unwell. You would not use this phrase if you were feeling extremely unwell. It is only for those times when you are feeling a little ill or suffering from something slightly like a cold or a cough. However, this can also be used to refer to feeling emotionally low.

    Rapid advances in a new technology will soon transform science fiction into reality — meaning people will have driverless cars, small robots at their command and the ability to experience being in another place without leaving home, predicted Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the planet's largest cell phone trade show.

    Introduction of books available online, Internet translation of languages and voice recognition for computers all happened much faster than anyone could foresee and that technological research into even more previously unheard of advances is progressing at a fast speed.

    “People who predict that holograms（全息图）and self-driving cars will become reality soon are absolutely right,” Schmidt told thousands of attendees. Research under way will lead to situations where people can put themselves at events like a rock concert so that they can see, hear and even feel the event. And turn down the volume, if it's too loud.

    One attendee said she was scared that the possibility could be dehumanizing, but Schmidt replied by holding up his cell phone into the air. “It has an off button and it is here on the right,” Schmidt said. “My point is that it is all about your control. If you don't like my version of a rock concert, I'm not forcing you to go.” In the future, small robots could be used so busy people can send them to events for video and voice transmissions when their presence isn't required, Schmidt said.

    Technology in the near future will redefine the relationship among people in the world. “With technology comes power and with power comes choice, and smarter resourceful citizens are going to demand a better deal for their new life,” Schmidt said.

Blood Drive & Marrow（骨髓）Registration

    “These patients deserve a chance at a normal happy future and they rely on the kindness of the strangers to make that happen.”

— Daisy, Isabelle's Mother

    Isabelle is the daughter of Daisy and Saman Mirzaei. In January 2014 Isabelle, 12-year-old, was diagnosed with a genetic blood disorder, beta thalassemia. Isabelle's body is unable to produce healthy red blood cells. As a result, Isabelle has been receiving blood transfusions (输血) every 4-6 weeks since she was 13 years old. A lifetime of regular transfusions can lead to serious medical problems. Her only chance at a normal, healthy life is to have a marrow transplant. Isabelle is only a child, so doctors have started a search for an unrelated marrow donor through The Match Registry. The Mirzaei family asks that you consider helping patients like Isabelle by registering to be a marrow donor and give the gift of life, the gift of blood.

Held at Wiley Hall

Wednesday, March 26

Behind Heathman Dormitory/Butterfield Rd.

12:00 PM - 6:00 PM

    Don't forget to bring your driver's license or another form of identification when you donate.

    Visit www.ribc.org to make an appointment, Sponsor Code 3390.

FREE Kingston Pizza ! ! !

www.ribc.org     800－283－8385

    The Rhode Island Blood Center distributes blood products to hospitals in Rhode Island and Southern New England.

    The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other forever. He sent his camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him.

    The next morning he said to the men, "Have you provided me with that sunset?"

    "No, sir," the men answered.

    The director was angry. "Why not?" he asked.

    "Well, sir," one of the men answered, "we're on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise over the sea, if necessary, but not a sunset."

    "But I want a sunset!" the director shouted. "Go to the airport, take the next flight to the west coast, and get one."

    But then a young secretary had an idea. "Why don't you photograph a sunrise," she suggested, "and then play it backwards? Then it'll look like a sunset."

    "That's a very good idea!" the director said. Then he turned to the camera crew and said, "Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea."

    The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay. Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director. "Here it is, sir," they said, and gave it to him. He was very pleased.

    They all went into the studio. "All right," the director explained, "now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the 'sunset' behind them."

    The "sunset" began, but after a quarter of a minute, the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.

    The birds in the film were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.

A key part of protecting endangered species is figuring out where they're living. Using environmental DNA, or eDNA, to track species isn't new. For a few years now, researchers have been using DNA in water.

Two teams of scientists — one in Denmark led by Dr Kristine Bohmann and one in the UK led by Dr Elizabeth Clare — came up with the same question at about the same time: Could they identify the animals in an area from DNA that was simply floating in the air? DNA in the air is usually so small that it would take a microscope to see it. "I thought the chances of collecting animal DNA from air would be slim though much time had been spent on it, but we moved on," said Bohmann who was trying to think of a crazy research idea for a Danish foundation that funds far-out science.

One team collected samples from different locations at Denmark's Copenhagen Zoo, and the other at Hamerton Zoo Park in the UK. Clearly, they both chose the zoos. "We realized we have the Copenhagen Zoo," Bohmann recalls. In fact, both the zoos in the UK and Denmark were almost like the zoos that were custom-built for the experiments: The animals in the zoos were non-native, so they really stuck out in DNA analyses. "If we detect a flamingo (火烈鸟), we're sure it's not coming from anywhere else but the zoo," Bohmann says.

In the laboratory, by comparing their samples with examples of DNA from different animals, the scientists succeeded in identifying many different animals at the zoos.

Neither team knew that the other team was working on a similar experiment. The two were nearing submission to a scientific journal when they discovered about the other experiment. Rather than compete to rush out a publication first, they got in touch and decided to publish their findings as a pair. "We both thought the papers are stronger together," says Clare.

"The next step is to figure out how to take this method into nature to track animals that are hard to spot, including endangered animals," says Bohmann.