16. What is the meaning and origin of ‘windfall'
The
amount of money that you win or receive from someone rather unexpectedly is
called ‘windfall'. It's a sudden stroke of luck.
*When
Gayathri visited her uncle after her marriage, she got a windfall of Rs. 75000.
Fruit
that falls down from a tree because of heavy wind is also called windfall. In
this context, we can also say ‘windfalls'.
*Sameer's
garden was covered with windfalls.
In
the old days in England, landowners were not allowed to cut down trees which
were on their property. The law stipulated that all trees were the property of
the Royal Navy, and the wood was to be used in the building of ships. If
however, heavy wind made a tree fall, the ‘windfall' became the owner's
property. Since in the old days such ‘windfall' was not common, the word began
to mean unexpected good fortune.
17.
Is it okay to say, ‘bouquet of flowers'?
Some
people would argue that ‘of flowers' is unnecessary because bouquet means an
attractive arrangement of flowers. But there is nothing wrong in saying
‘bouquet of flowers'. The ‘ou' in the first syllable, by the way, is like the
‘oo' in ‘fool', ‘cool', and ‘school'. The following ‘q' is like the ‘k' in
‘king' and ‘kiss', and the final ‘uet' rhymes with ‘say' and ‘bay'. The word is
pronounced ‘boo-KAY' with the stress on the second syllable.
18. “What is
the meaning of New York minute?”
“An extremely short period
of time. It's actually less than a minute. It took the students less than a New
York minute to find a solution to the problem.”
“The new CEO arrived at a
decision in a New York minute.”
“Tell me what you want.
I'll give you a New York minute.”
“But why New York and not
some other city?”
“When people from other
cities came to New York in the late 19 {+t} {+h} century, they found that life
in this city was extremely fast. New Yorkers seemed to be constantly rushing
from one place to another without having any time to relax.”
“It's the same feeling
that some of us have today when we visit Mumbai.
19. Anyway, did you take a
look at the document I gave you? Are the instructions clear?”
“The instructions are
clear as mud.”
“Clear as mud? But mud
isn't very clear.”
“It isn't, and that's the
point. When you say something is clear as mud, you mean it isn't clear at all.”
“So what you are saying is
that the instructions are difficult or impossible to understand.”
“Exactly! The directions
that Sujatha gave to reach her house were clear as mud.”
“I've read his chapter
twice, and it's as clear as mud to me.”
“Alok's presentation was
clear as mud.”
20. “Talking about mud,
there is some good news! The weatherman says we'll have a heavy downpour
tomorrow.”
“If the weatherman says
that, it'll probably rain kittens and puppies.”
“Kittens and puppies? You
mean cats and dogs, don't you?”
“When you say it's raining
cats and dogs, you mean that it is pouring or raining heavily. When the rain is
light, it is possible to say...”
“You can say that it's
raining kittens and puppies.”
“That's right! Now
then...”
“Does the expression
really exist or are you trying to fool me?”
“The expression does
exist.”
“I see. How about this
example, then? Forget the umbrella, it's just raining kittens and puppies.”
“That's a good example. To
solve the water problem, we need it to rain cats and dogs. Not kittens and
puppies.”
A collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper
Courtesy: Sri Upendra, the writer of the above
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