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At the Restaurant 1

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At the Restaurant

Today, let’s work on common expressions you may hear in a restaurant setting.

Remember! Using them is not as important as understanding them.

Let’s Begin!•Blimp

•Burger joint•Chow down•Come off it•Cost an arm and a leg

•Fat chance

•Dive

Here are your first seven.

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Before we get started, check

out these websites for definitions.

Free Dictionary

SlangSite.com

Wiktionary

UsingEnglish.com

Blimp

Read the example to

get the meaning.

Thomas eats at the local pizza restaurant every night after work. If he keeps it up, he will turn into a blimp.

The Spirit of Goodyear, one of the iconic Goodyear Blimps.

Let’s Practice!When I was a teenager, I was very active and thin. Now that I have an office job, I don’t exercise much and I eat out a lot. Now I look like a blimp.

Miki weighs 320 pounds. He has become a blimp since graduating from high school.

What a blimp! How can you let yourself get so heavy.

Burger Joint

Hmmm! I see you’re

hungry.Me too!

I didn’t know you like to eat at McDoodle. That’s my favorite burger joint.

How about a little practice?

The last time I ate at that burger joint, I ate too much. I thought for sure I would turn into a blimp.

If you go to that burger joint, could you pick me up a burger and French fries? I’m starving.

Let’s go to the burger joint down the street. I feel like eating a good juicy hamburger tonight.

Now let’s review.If Marty continues to eat French fries and cheese burgers every day for lunch, he is going to turn into a blimp.

Frances just opened her dream burger joint. Let’s go there to eat this Friday.

Let’s not eat at that burger joint. I am tired of hamburgers.

What happened to you? Two years ago you were a blimp; today you look great.

Chow Down

Where’s my

lunch? I’m

starving!

After a long morning of classes and homework, the students are ready to chow down.

Here we go again! Practice makes perfect.

After a good two hour workout in the gym, I am ready to chow down.

What a blimp! How can she chow down and not expect to gain weight?

That burger joint lets two people chow down for the price of one on Wednesday after 8:00pm. Let’s go!

Come Off It!

Wait! Do I hear a

lie?

Come off it! I wish you would just tell the truth for once.

Come off it! Do you really expect me to believe you won the Lottery last night? No one won!

You and your lies. I have eaten in that burger joint, so I know how good the food is. So come off it about the chow being so bad.

Here we go! Let’s Practice.

You should be more careful when you talk about over weight people. Calling them blimps is rude.

When deciding which burger joint to eat at, ask your friends if they have eaten there and if the chow is good.

Let’s chow down at that burger joint after class.

Oh come off it! I’m tired of your lies. Just tell the truth.

Cost an Arm and a Leg

Here’s a bit of trivia.

The history of cost an arm and a leg goes back to George Washington’s time. In those days, it was common to have a portrait painted to capture the image of a person. Portraits in Washington’s time were very expensive. The cost was based on how many limbs were included in the portrait. Therefore, there was one cost for the head and chest, a higher cost for one arm, and an even higher cost for a second arm, and so on.

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1805. New York Historical Society

Let’s practice.

I cannot afford the 2011 ford Mustang. It will cost me an arm and a leg at $22,145 for a starting price.

Martin has cost this company an arm and a leg this year. We need to lay him off.

If you buy that gaming computer, it will cost you an arm and a leg. Why don’t you buy this more affordable computer? You can afford this one.

This cruise is very affordable. It won’t cost us an arm and a leg.

Dive

This isn’t what you think it

is.

Dive is a noun for a specific old unkempt or dirty place. Can you guess from the picture?

Old Moose Head burger joint.

Let’s make sure you got it!Last weekend Mary and Vinnie went to the burger joint across from the high school. When they were younger, they really liked the food. But today it is under new management and the food is really bad. Not only that, but the place is dirty and the staff is lazy. I won’t be going to that dive.

I don’t want to eat here. From the looks on the outside, it looks like a dive.

I heard that bar is a real dive. Joe went there with his friends and they had a terrible time.

Let’s do some practicing!The food in that burger joint is so greasy that you will turn into a blimp if you eat their heart attack cheesy bacon burger.

The last time we went to that burger joint, it cost me an arm and a leg. Let’s go to McDoodle’s; it is more affordable.

I don’t chow down on French fries any more. I love to eat them, but I’m afraid of turning into a blimp.

Come off it! We are not going to that dive again, are we? Every time we eat there, I get sick.

Fat Chance!

That’s right!

There is no chance of winning.

Fat chance! I heard that the chances of winning the lotto are one in three trillion. So, let’s not buy any tickets. I’m tired of wasting my money.

Fat chance of that dive closing down in the near future. The owners are millionaires and have the bar for fun.

I lost my contact in that burger joint. Fat chance I will find it. There are just too many areas where I could have lost it.

Puzzle Time!

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FFIT

T P

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B L

OO S AMNT A A R N D AH

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WODW

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GEL

Blimp

Burger Joint

Chow down

Come off it

Cost an arm and a

leg

Dive

E

GRUB

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