【推荐1】Have you heard of the idiom (习语) “Let the cat out of the bag.”? It came from a town in England. Long long ago, people there thought it was very important ________ honest.

One day, Beth came to the market to buy ________ pig. A man said he had a baby pig for sale. Beth asked him how much ________ and he replied, “One gold coin.” The price wasn’t high, so Beth happily gave ________ a gold coin. The man gave Beth a closed ________, saying, “Here’s your pig.”

________ Beth got home, she happily opened the bag to let the pig out. However, ________ her surprise, there was a cat, not a pig! She thought, “I ________ by him.”

One day, the man went to the market to trick more people. When Beth saw him, she told his secret to everyone __________. Beth asked him to open the bag, but he refused. She had no choice but to take the man to the judge (法官).

“In the market, he said he was selling a pig,” said Beth. She took the man’s bag, ________ it and let a cat out of the bag. This way, Beth made people in town know the man’s secret.

Now when we say someone gives away a secret, we say “He lets the cat out of the bag”. And that is the story where the interesting idiom came from.

【推荐2】Many idioms (习语) in English are based on animals. ______ children jump around and act silly, for example, their parents may tell them to stop monkeying around. To monkey around means to do things that are not useful or serious, or simply to waste ______.

But to spend time playing with their ______ wouldn’t count as monkeying around. Many American families have a pet dog, which makes the children feel ______. But for some reason, which language experts do not know, Americans use “dog” in a phrase (短语) that means to feel ______. If you are as sick as a dog, you are really really sick and will most likely to have to stay at home and ______, or even go and see a doctor.

Apart (除了) from dogs, cats are ______ beloved family members in U.S. families. Sometimes you may hear them mentioned in Americans’ conversations. “I told you to keep that a ______, but you have just let the cat out of the bag!” You probably have ______ it. That idiom means to reveal (揭露) a secret or tell facts that were unknown before. Dogs and cats don’t always get on well, ______ they appear together in a commonly used idiom. When it rains heavily, people might say it’s raining cats and dogs outside!