공통영어1 지학 신상근 2과 본문 빈칸 퀴즈

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are four English ____ with Greek origins.

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

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

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

She dipped him in the magical River ____.

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

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

This became his only weak ____.

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

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

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

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

One day, the Greeks came up with an ____.

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

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

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

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

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

This allowed the ____ to win 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.

____ legend tells 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 knot ____ become the ruler of Asia.

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

Then, Alexander the ____ came along.

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 ____ because that was not what they had expected.

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

The important ____ is that it’s undone.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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