English Vocabulary in Use: Advanced Book with Answers and Enhanced eBook Vocabulary Reference and Practice 3rd Edition

Here are some more metaphors based on aspects of buildings. Can you guess what the 
underlined expressions mean and rewrite them?
1 He earns very little, barely enough to keep the wolf from the door.
2 The speaker’s request for questions was met with a wall of silence.
3 Working on this project together should help to lay the foundations for a good relationship in the 
future.
4 Nathan’s prolonged illness left his business in ruins.
5 This government should clean up its own backyard before criticising other countries.
Over to 
you
Which of the metaphors in this unit also work as metaphors when translated literally into 
your own language? Look at exercise 30.4 as well as the opposite page.
30.1
30.2
30.3
30.4
30.5

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English Vocabulary in Use Advanced
Taking root and reaping rewards
31
Parts of a plant
Here are some metaphors based on parts of trees and plants:
Seed(s) is oft en used to talk about the start of an idea or feeling: the seeds of success, the seeds of 
discontent, the seeds of revolution.
Root(s) is used to suggest the origins of something. You can talk about going back to your roots, 
for example, meaning going back to the place where your family came from. You can also talk about 
the root of a problem or the roots of a tradition. Putting down roots means settling down and 
making your home in one place: Aft er travelling the world for a couple of years, I was ready to go 
home and 
put down some roots.
When an idea becomes known or accepted, it can be said to 
take root. The grassroots supporters 
of an organisation or society are the ordinary people in it, not the leaders.