Familiarity with idiomatic expressions facilitates comprehension.

Students should be formally introduced to idioms for several reasons. There is less exposure to figurative language than in the past. More students speak English as a second language. These interesting idioms teach students about the richness and cultural diversity of our language.

The 18 sets cover 180 idioms. Each set has 10 sentences with a word or words underlined. Students use contextual clues to decide which idiom can be substituted, then match the pairs.

The origin of each idiom is on the back of the idiom card. Finding out how these colorful sayings became part of the English vernacular is interesting and should aid comprehension.