介绍:
1. Basketcase
-The Prince at the Flight school was a total basketcase, because he knew he could slack off and still get his pilot lisence.
-The General was a basketcase for getting his soldiers to go on suicide missions instead of using actual strategy.
-The cat is a basketcase, since he gets one disease after another
Definition: completely hopeless case
Etymology: The supposed origin came about during World War I and was used to describe servicemen that had all of their limbs either surgically or explodingly removed--leaving them as nothing more then torsos that would have to be carried in a basket.
2. Dead ringer
-Matt's homework was a dead ringer to his smart friend Kelvin.
-The cat on the missing pet poster is a dead ringer to our cat. Let's go claim the reward
-His tattoo is a dead ringer to Ben's
Definition: exact duplicate
Etymology: Towards the end of the 19th century, race horse owners began to devise ways to fool bookies who would try to scope out the horses before a race. The trick was you brought two similar horses, one fast and one slow. The owners would run the slower horse around for all to see, thus driving up the odds against it. They have a friend place some bets, then at race time, whip out the fast horse.
So it was a "ringer" (slang for an illicit competitor in a sports event) and "dead" in that was dead-on, or identical.
3. Rule of thumb
-As a rule of thumb I leave the boil tap water even if I know its clean.
-Going by a rule of thumb I always stay at least 5 meters behind the car in front of me.
-As a rule of thumb I never talk about politics with people.
Definition: A common or ubiquitous benchmark
Etymology: The truth of the phrase is that it likely just refers to carpenters and tailors who, without a ruler handy, would just measure things in thumb-lengths.
