CRAB

Certain kinds of crabs are very tasty seafood. Do you know how many pairs of legs a crab has? Five pairs, or rather, four pairs and a pair of large front claws.

The crab walks or runs sideways, hence the saying, “You cannot make a crab walk straight.” This saying tells us not to do what cannot be done. For example, don’t try to force a boy to learn ballet if he is not cut out for it: you cannot make a crab walk straight.

What is “crabbed hand”? It refers to hand writing that is small and difficult to read. If your composition is written in a crabbed hand, other people will find it illegible.

BEE

In spring and summer, when flowers are in bloom, bees are especially busy – busy gathering nectar from flowers to make money.

People are sometimes as busy as a bee. On a day when you have a lot of cleaning and washing to do, you are as busy as a bee, aren’t you?

What’s “a bee in one’s bonnet?” It’s an idiom, meaning “a strange, fixed idea.” If a boy has a bee in his bonnet about becoming another Superman, that will be a big problem. Then it will be necessary for his parents and his friends to talk him into giving up the idea.

Ice

Ice is the solid form of water. On hot summer days you certainly enjoy iced drinks and ice-cream.

In winter time many people like to skate on frozen lakes. Everybody knows it is dangerous to skate on thin ice. So it is easy to see why the idiom “to skate on thin ice” means “to be in a risky situation”. You’ll be skating on thin ice if you take an examination without preparation.

“Break the ice” is another idiom. On a social occasion there must be somebody to break the ice at the beginning and start a conversation.

PEACOCK

A peacock is a large bird. Its long tail has bright green and gold feathers with spots like eyes on them. When a peacock raises its tail and fans out the feathers, it is indeed a wonderful sight.

A peacock likes to walk about proudly. So, if a person is very proud, we can say he is as proud as a peacock. Such a person is unpleasant. A person who plays the peacock is even more unpleasant. What kinds of people often play the peacock? Vain people do.

WOLF

To cry “Wolf” is to give a false alarm. It comes from the fable of the shepherd boy who often called “Wolf” merely to make fun of the neighbors. When at last the wolf came, no one would believe him. So never give a false alarm, a false fire alarm, for example. Otherwise no one will come to your rescue when you are really in danger.

“Wolf” can stand for “hunger”. You can say “he has a wolf in his stomach” instead of “he is very hungry”. One who eats quickly and greedily is said to wolf his food or to eat wolfishly. “To keep the wolf from the door” is to keep out hunger. It is said that so many people in the world still find it hard to keep the wolf from the door.