Advanced English Conversations - Robert Allans, Ahmet Mustafaoglu, Metin Emir 2019

Set (63) - It’s time to turn over a new leaf!

Dialogue

Lucy: Won’t you patch it up with Sam? It’s time to turn over a new leaf! The whole matter isn’t worth it!

Jenny: Not in the short run at least! He’s such a bootlicker and keeps sucking up to Thomas just to gloss over his under-the-table deals.

Lucy: That’s weird! He used to be on the level and never stepped out of line.

Jenny: Being surrounded by corrupt people made of him a carbon copy of them.

Lucy: As they say; dogs of the same street bark alike!

Vocabulary

Patch up: to settle (a quarrel).

Turn over a new leaf: to start behaving in a better way.

Suck up: to kowtow; behave obsequiously, especially for one's own advantage.

gloss over: to overlook: to ignore: to avoid considering.

Under-the-table: (adj) Secret (often because what is being done is illegal).

On the level: honest; straightforward.

A carbon copy: a person or thing identical or very similar to another.

Dogs of the same street bark alike: People of the same background have the same behaviour.

Exercise;

Fill in the gaps with the correct phrases;

patch up

turn over a new leaf

suck up

gloss over

under-the-table

on the level

a carbon copy

dogs of the same street bark alike

a. Steven and Peter went to the same school and are of the same neighborhood. They have almost identical habits and interests. Well, it’s true that ..........

b. I need to you to be .......... with me: do I have any chance at this promotion?

c. A few tabloid newspapers got hold of this .......... gossip.

d. That particular trip was more or less a .......... of the previous one.

e. Jackie and Bill are still trying to .......... their marriage.

f. After years of drifting from job to job, Danny .......... and got himself a steady gig.

g. You don’t have to .......... to them anymore. We have got the upper hand already!

h. Some foreign governments appear happy to .......... continued human rights abuses.