Animal Idioms

Click on an idiom to study its meaning before taking the quiz.

Read the sentences and try to guess the meaning of the idioms.
Click the answer button to see the correct answer.

Wow! It's raining cats and dogs today! I wish I'd brought my umbrella to school!
a. I forgot my umbrella today.
b. It's raining heavily.
c. Cats and dogs are falling from the sky.
When I told my mom I would be home around 2 am, she had a cow!
a. My mom bought a baby cow.
b. My mom is really strange.
c. My mom was really upset.
Jean: How did you know it was my birthday today?
Susan: Oh, a little birdie told me!
a. Jean told Susan it was her birthday.
b. An unnamed person told Susan about Jean's birthday.
c. Susan told Jean it was her birthday.
Frank: Why didn't your brother ride the roller coaster with us?
Sam: Oh, he's such a scaredy cat! He won't get on any fast ride.
a. Sam's brother is afraid to ride the roller coaster.
b. Sam's brother is a cat.
c. Sam's brother didn't go to the roller coaster.
When the telephone salesman told me I could buy some concert tickets for only $10.00 if I gave him my credit card number, it seemed a little fishy to me, so I hung up the phone.
a. I thought the telephone salesman smelled like a fish and I didn't like that.
b. I thought the phone salesman was a dangerous fish and he scared me.
c. I thought the phone salesman was dishonest and I felt suspicious of him.
I never learned how to use a computer, so I lost my job to a new employee. It's a dog-eat-dog world.
a. Only the strong or the best survive.
b. Dogs are eating dogs at the office.
c. Dogs like to eat dogs for lunch.

Copyright (C) 1998 by Kaye Mastin Mallory (kmkm@hotmail.com)
This quiz is part of the HTML-Only Self-Study Quizzes which is part of Activities for ESL Students, a project by The Internet TESL Journal.