IELTS Speaking IDIOMS Lesson: CHALLENGES

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- Gonna come up to idioms,

which means it's time for this.

♪ I want some idioms ♪

♪ I want them now ♪

♪ I want some idioms ♪

♪ But I don't know how ♪

♪ How to learn them ♪ ♪ How to learn them ♪

♪ How to remember them ♪

- I can't sing.

♪ All that I know now ♪

- Great radio voice, terrible singer.

♪ Is that I want some idioms now ♪

♪ How to learn them ♪

♪ How to remember them ♪

♪ All I know when I really think so ♪

♪ Is that I want some idioms now ♪

♪ How to learn them ♪

♪ How to remember them them ♪

♪ All I know when I really think so ♪

♪ Is that I want some idioms now ♪

♪ How to learn them ♪

- How to learn them.

Kristen, where can you buy the cup?

I think the answer must be obvious.

Go to Cambridge University.

That's where I bought it. (laughs)

Great, where can I buy the cup?

Now then, where are we?

So, let me take you off there, Kristen,

because we're gonna be looking at these...

I'm gonna look at three idioms related to challenges

and problem solving.

Can you guess them?

Here is the first idiom.

Oh dear, oh dear.

First idiom coming up.

Number one.

Ready?

What is this?

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Just write your answer in the chat.

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Wow, very, very interesting, right?

So, the answer there was, lots of you got it,

is to hit the nail on the head.

Notice,

you can't say, to hit the nail,

that doesn't really mean anything.

To hit the nail, no.

You must say to hit the on the head, right?

The head is the top.

And it's to get the perfect answer

or solution, basically.

So, remember we're talking about problem solving.

You hit the nail on the head

when you said, the government needs to change direction.

You hit the nail on the head, you got the perfect answer.

Now, other idioms that some of you said,

was to nail it,

and that means to do something...

Whoops.

To do something

perfectly, which is similar,

to nail it.

You nailed it.

You will nail it.

Is to do something perfectly.

So, it's a similar related thing.

Somebody mentioned to nail down

and yes, and to nail down is to fix.

Let's nail down some dates.

Let's fix some dates.

Or let's nail down some ideas,

is to fix something.

So we can also say that,

but that's not really about challenges or problem solving.

Okay, lovely. Great ideas.

You're really good you guys.

Very, very good.

Let's have a look at the next idiom.

That was number one.

Here is number two.

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What is this?

Remember it's connected to challenges and problem solving.

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Hmm.

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- Wow, great ideas, guys.

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♪ Ooh ♪

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(Keith chuckles)

- Nice.

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

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♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

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- Okay.

So, there are so many possibilities.

The one I'm thinking of

is to be up against the wall, right?

If you look at it, he's there, he's up.

He's up against the wall.

Not easy and not clear, I know.

Not very, very clear.

But to be up against the wall,

up against the wall is to be in a difficult situation

with no easy solution.

So, when you face a challenge

and it's really difficult,

you can be up against the wall.

For example, I was up against the wall when my boss moved

the deadline forward one week.

So, the deadline was next week.

He moved it forward to this week.

I was up against the wall, right?

Difficult situation.

Very similar idioms.

To have your back to the wall

is the same thing, right?

To be up against the wall, have your back to the wall.

It's the same.

To be between a rock and a hard place.

You're between a rock and a hard place.

It's the same.

You're against two walls, if you like.

It's very, very difficult.

You're in a difficult place.

You're between a rock and a hard place.

It's in a difficult situation.

So, these three all mean the same thing

and very, very good to use in this context, right?

Very, very relevant.

Now then,

some of you had other idioms that I'll just add

because one or two of them, I mean they are great.

There are so many, right?

Related to that picture that are related to challenges.

To rack your brains,

was a good one.

To rack your brains is to think hard

of a solution.

To rack your brains.

Mind blowing, something is mind blowing.

Yes, it's something's difficult.

To blow your mind,

is to amaze you.

It can be positive and negative.

It blows my mind.

It's amazing. It's great.

Or something is so stupid or so difficult,

it blows my mind.

So, it can be both positive and negative.

Okay, but these are different, really different idioms.

But there were lots of them.

To blow off steam was a good idiom.

To brainstorm, yeah.

There are lots of other idioms there.

I don't wanna get into too many to confuse you,

but let's leave them there.

That's great.

Let's move on to the next idiom.

Number three is this one.

Oh, and look, the sun is coming out.

What a surprise.

What on earth is this one?

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(Keith chuckles)

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Fatma, too hard?

Maybe, maybe.

But listen, some of you have absolutely got it

and it was to pull out all the stops.

You can see in there

that the person is pulling the stop signs out on the road.

So, this one was meant to be, to pull out all the stops,

which means to do everything possible

to overcome a challenge.

If you want to find the origin of that idiom,

you can join my "150 Idioms" course

'cause it's one of those that I explain in there.

So to do everything possible, everything you can,

you give all your energy to overcome the challenge.

For example, to meet the deadline,

we pulled out all the stops

and worked through the weekend.

Made a big, big effort, right?

To pull out all the stops.

Somebody said, to remove the roadblocks,

is also possible.

It's another kind of expression,

to remove the roadblocks.

I think that's less common as an idiom, but you can say it.

We also use that, right, to remove the roadblocks.

Oh, I'm such a perfectionist, aren't I?

You can tell.

Get the right font. (laughs)

It's the same idea.

I mean, if you look at the picture,

the idea of you've got hurdles, you've got...

Well no, it's a different idea.

It's, sorry, it's a very, very different idea.

To remove the roadblocks is,

to remove the

hurdles or obstacles.

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So it's, sorry, it's a very different idiom,

different meaning, excuse me.

But I can see why from the picture, you have the same.

Others that came out.

There were a few others that were similar.

Don't give up.

Stop and look.

Keep going.

All of these.

But yes, so those are the key ones that we've got.

Excellent. Good.

Those are the idioms.

What is coming up next?

Well, coming up next, let's have a look.

Switch from idioms.

I think it's a listening bingo.

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