Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry,
advanced idioms. And these are advanced idioms about trying or attempting, usually trying or
attempting something new. And as always, I'm going to go down through the list and we have 10 items
on the list. I'll go through them, explain them, and then give you an example of how you
can use them. And if you have any questions, or you need more examples, then I'll give you
the address at the end of this particular lesson. Okay, so we've got 10, as I said.
Let's go through them first, to take the plunge. Well, when you when something plunges, it goes
down very quickly, like falls, a rock will plunge over the side of the bridge, if you drop it, okay,
or a car that comes off a bridge would plunge into the river. So we're down very, very fast. When you
take the plunge, you do something very quickly, sometimes, without thinking or that planning.
You go on to the boss, and you hand in your resignation. And he asked you what you're going
to do, who you're going to go and work for? Well, actually, nobody. I'm going to travel around the
world for the next year or two years. Who knows? I'll see you and I see you so you take the plunge
hand in the resignation, pack your bag, and off you go. We often use the expression to take the
plunge. When somebody seems to be afraid to get married. He's been gone out with that girl for
it now 10 years, and he hasn't taken the plunge yet he hasn't asked her to marry him sugar often
should marry somebody else. He missed the boat. Yeah. So take the plunge to do something quickly,
often unplanned and unexpectedly take the plunge. To feel a rush of something. Often,
the complete idiom here is to feel a rush of blood to the head and means something prompts
you to do something and very quickly. I felt the rush of blood and just decided to do it. I've
been meaning to do something like this for ages. Yeah, but running a marathon at your age. Well,
why not? Start training tomorrow. I'll do a couple of marathons next year, at least I'll try. Okay,
so you had a rush of blood to the head and you made a quick decision. So tomorrow,
you start training for that all important first marathon. Why not? Indeed, all you need is a bit
of training, a bit of guts, determination, and you'll get there. So to feel a rush of
blood to the head. So sometimes when we make sudden decisions, they might be good decisions,
or they may indeed be bad decisions, because you you just do them very quickly, because you had a
sudden rush of blood to the head. To jump at the chance. Well, when we jump at the chance, we would
really welcome the opportunity to do something, why don't you ask Mark to go, he would jump at
the chance to go. So the boss is sick and tired of travelling backwards and forwards to London
backwards and forwards to Paris. So he's looking for somebody to take some responsibility for that.
So it's suggested that ask Mark, he would jump at the chance he would really like the opportunity.
So when you jump at the chance, you would really really welcome the opportunity to do something
that you've been hoping to do for a long, long time. So to jump at the chance. You'd jump at
the chance to travel. You'd jump at the chance to take on more responsibility in your company.
So anytime you want to do something that you've been planning to do, and nobody's quite asked you,
you can use that to jump at the chance or I jump at the chance to do that I jump at the chance to
get a bit more travelling, I jump at the chance to do another degree. Okay, so something that
you would like to do, all you need is somebody to give you a gentle push on indeed just to ask
you to jump at the chance to be on a roll. Well, when we are on a roll, we've started something,
we're getting successful at it and we continue. Okay, so the sales guy, he's sold two cars already
this week, and he's really feeling excited and another customer comes in. And guess what, within
a half an hour he's persuaded that customer to buy the new cars, that's three this week. He's never
had it so good. So he's on a roll and the boss is really happy with them. They can see that they're
going to reach their targets quite easily this year. So to be on a roll is to be successful, like
a ball when it starts to roll. It's hard to stop it, okay, so it will continue to roll and roll and
roll. So when you're on a roll, it means you're successful things are looking good. You don't want
them to stop. Don't stop him now, he's on a roll. This is a good way to use it. Don't stop him now,
he's on a roll. He's really, really doing well. Okay? Or a comedian, a standup comedian,
he gets up. And his first joke is an absolute great hit. And the second joke is even better. And
after 10 minutes, the audience are really really rolling around the floor laughing So he's on a
roll he knows is that the audience exactly where he wants them in the palm of his hand. So to be on
a roll. And remember, if you liked this lesson, then please like the video, and if you can,
please subscribe to the channel, because it really really helps. Give it a whirl. Well, when we give
something a whirl, it means we're going to give it a chance. We don't know what to expect. We've
never done it before. But guess what? Let's ah... let's just give it a whirl. Let's give it
a go. Okay, perhaps you want to take up ballroom dancing, and your friends say, ballroom dancing.
But you've got two left feet? Yeah. But you know, you need to try something new every now and again.
I think it would be great fun. Anyway, I gonna give it a whirl. If it works, it works. Great. If
it doesn't, so what? At least I've tried, okay. So when you give something a whirl, you have no
idea what to expect. You have no idea whether you'll be successful, or it will be a failure,
but you know what, you're going to try it. And yet you're going to give it a whirl. So like
learning English, who knows, give it a whirl. If you want to do some exams, IELTS or something,
why not, give it a whirl. Give something your best shot. Now, again, you might not be successful,
but you know, you're going to try your absolute best. So your best shot is your best kick,
the goal, your best shot would be your best throw of a dart, you know. So these are the literal
meanings of it. But when you say that you're going to give something your best shot, you're going to
try your damnedest or you're going to try as well as you can to make it successful. Okay, so you've
got a really important exam coming up, in fact, at your final exam, and your parents said, you Well,
look, you've done your study, you've done all the work, you've submitted all the essays that you had
to do. So just go into the exam, give it your best shot, and whatever happens happens, okay,
so at least you've tried, you've studied you're prepared, so there should be no reason to feel
apprehensive, just go and give it your best shot shot, do as well as you can. Okay, to give it your
best shot. To square the circle, this is quite strange. To square the circle means to finish
something off, usually something difficult, you can't make a circle out of a square, and you can't
make a square out of a circle. But when you want to square the circle, you want to try and complete
whatever you were working because really, you don't like loose ends yet you don't like something
unfinished. So somebody has to square the circle. So perhaps there's some detailed or difficult
negotiations going on. And you're getting close to the end and say, okay, look, I'll just stick
with this for another half an hour or hour, I want to square the circle. I want to complete it
and see it's over. It's finished. It's finalised, and let's move on to the next thing. Okay, so to
square the circle, try your hand at something. Well, when we try our hand at something,
it means to try and do something that we haven't done before. In my case, it could be ice skating,
I'm hopeless. Every time I stand on the ice skates, I fall over and I end up with a soul
bomb. Okay, so to try your hand at something means to try and do something that you're perhaps not so
gifted at. You know, we don't get a lot of snow and ice in this country. So there's not a lot of
opportunity to ice skate. But I did try my hand at it. It didn't work out. And it didn't try it
again. When I was about 50 I tried my hand at skiing, I went on a skiing holiday. And yeah,
it wasn't the best I'm not going to win any downhill Alpine medals but I was able to do it.
So I tried my hand at something. So to attempt to do something that you haven't done before,
to adapt attempt to something that you might feel you could do, but you might fail but at
least you try. So to try your hand at something. Kids should try their hand at lots of different
sports until they find something that they really enjoy doing that suits them Okay,
so to try your hand and we often use the expression ah He's great, you know, he'll
try his hand at anything, okay? So if you want tiles, put him in the bathroom, he's your man,
if you want some plumbing done, he's your man. Even if you want some electrical wires installed,
he's your man he will try his hand at anything is a real DIY enthusiast. So to try your hand
at anything, or something to do, or to try your utmost, well, this is a little bit formal, okay.
To do your utmost is like doing your best your very, very best. I'll do my utmost to close the
deal. I know what it needs. But you know, these guys are going to be tough negotiators. So I'll
do my utmost you can rely on me to try, we might not be successful, but we'll do our best we'll try
our utmost. We asked our kids to try their best at an exam, do your utmost to listen to the teacher,
do your utmost to carry out the instructions, do your utmost to follow and copy, and then you'll
understand how to do it the next time to do your utmost. And then finally just go for it. Yeah,
we have this expression all the time. What are you going to do are just going to go for it, you know,
just this is this is the one chance i i have I'm going to go in there and they're going to ask him,
Why am I not gonna get promoted? Am I gonna get promoted this time? If not, well, you know,
there are other jobs out there. So just go for it. Okay. Or I really, really liked this girl
and think she likes me. So I'm going to ask her out on a date. What do you think? Wow,
why not go for it? What you're going to say the worst you can say is no. Yeah,
so who knows you might be successful. So just go for it. So when you want to do something,
you want to grab it with both hands? Then just go for it. You've got the idea. You've got the wind
in your sails as they say, so you can just go for it. And who knows nothing ventured,
nothing gained. Yeah, okay, you just have to go for it. Okay, so there are all advanced idioms
about trying or attempting to take the plunge, take the plunge. Feel a rush of something, usually
a rush of blood to the head is how we explain it to feel a rush of blood to the head, jump at the
chance to be on a roll to be on a roll to give it a whirl and look out for the spelling of that to
give it a whirl. To give something your best shot, give it your best shot. To square the circle,
quite strange to square the circle. Try your hand at something to try your hand at something to do
or to try your utmost a little bit more formal to try your utmost. And then finally go for it to go
for it. A lot of the time is about doing something that you've never done before. And that's the
whole idea of trying or attempting because you're attempting new things, dangerous things,
risky things. Who knows what they are, but if you don't try, you won't win. Yeah, like everything
else. If you don't buy a ticket, you can't win the lotto. Okay, so trying and attempting.
So why don't you try and attempt some of these particular idioms see, do they work for you see,
do you understand them. And as I said earlier, if you want some extra examples, and you can contact
me and www.englishlessonviaskype.com You know, I'm always happy to hear from you. Always happy
to help you out. So if you need anything else, you just have to ask. Okay, well, this is Harry
saying goodbye. Thanks for listening, and thanks for watching, and join me for the next lesson.