공통영어1 지학 신상근 2과 본문 빈칸 퀴즈

____ you heard the expression, “It’s Greek to me”?

It means “I can’t understand what you are saying because it sounds like a ____ language to me.”

You may wonder why it is not French or ____ but Greek.

The reason is that the Ancient Greeks had an enormous influence on Western ____.

Greece was the birthplace of Classical Western civilization, and therefore, also left us with ____ pretty great idioms.

Idioms pose a special challenge in ____ learning because their meanings are different from the words that make them up.

Learning their origins will make it easier to understand ____ they mean and to figure out how to use them.

____ are four English idioms with Greek origins.

____ to Homer, the Ancient Greek poet, the Greeks and Trojans had a war that lasted ten years.

This war eventually became known as the Trojan War, ____ Achilles became the most famous hero.

____ Achilles was born, his mother, a goddess of water, attempted to make him immortal.

She dipped him in the magical River ____.

Wherever the water touched, the part ____ would become indestructible.

____, because she held him upside down by one of his heels, Achilles’ heel remained dry.

This became his only ____ spot.

Achilles ____ up to be a great warrior and survived many great battles.

____, during the Trojan War, Paris, a prince of Troy, shot a poisoned arrow that struck Achilles’ heel, which led to his death.

This is why the idiom “Achilles’ heel” ____ to a fatal weakness, especially in a situation where all other parts are strong.

Even ____ the death of Achilles, the Trojan War reached a point where no one could win.

One day, the ____ came up with an idea.

They built a big wooden horse and left it outside the city of ____.

They pretended to leave the horse ____ as a gift for the Trojans.

The Trojans thought they had won, so they pulled the horse ____ their city gates.

However, the Greeks had hidden their ____ inside the horse.

That night, the soldiers came out of the horse and opened the gates to let in the Greek ____ waiting outside.

This allowed the Greeks to ____ the war.

Nowadays, people ____ the idiom “Trojan horse” to describe a trick or scheme that is used to hide someone’s true purpose or intention.

Greek legend ____ of the Gordian Knot, which was tied by a king named Gordius.

The knot was so complex that no one was ____ to untie it.

A prophet said whoever could untie the ____ would become the ruler of Asia.

For ____ of years, people unsuccessfully tried to untie the knot.

Then, Alexander the Great came ____.

He tried to untie it, and it just ____ tighter.

After thinking for a ____, he drew his sword and cut the knot in half!

Everyone was shocked ____ that was not what they had expected.

He explained, “It doesn’t ____ how the knot was untied.

The important ____ is that it’s undone.”

From that day on, the idiom “cutting the Gordian knot” has been ____ used to describe a simple solution to a complex problem.

In ancient ____, people often discussed important matters and made decisions through voting.

They cast votes by dropping a white or ____ bean into a clay jar.

____ beans were used for positive votes, and black beans for negative votes.

These votes were cast in secret, so if someone knocked over the jar, whether by accident or on purpose, they spilled the ____ and revealed the results of the vote prematurely.

Because of this origin, the phrase “spill the beans” came to mean “reveal information that was meant to be kept ____.”

Idioms are an ____ part of everyday English, and they make the language rich and colorful.

When you run into idioms that are “Greek to you,” take the time to study their ____.

It is a fun way to increase your ____ of English, and it can also help you to remember them and use them in the appropriate situations going forward.