Below is a text with popular expressions. Click on the underline words to open a window and read the meanings if you have doubts.

Mike’s StoryMike was depressed. He was at the “end of the rope”. He had lost the contract for the company, and the “big wigs” were giving him the “cold shoulder”. His boss “called him on the carpet”, and his “name was mud” that day at the firm.

For years his job had been great, but now he was being “raked over the coals” for something beyond his control. In his mind, Mike felt he was being “sold down the river”, but he wasn’t going to let himself down.

He would “pull up stakes” and start over again. It wouldn’t be easy. Being the “low man on the totem pole” at a new company was not Mike’s idea of success. Anyway, the next day he would “call in sick” and start the search for a new job. A change would suit him perfectly!

But before Mike knew it, everybody forgot about the contract. In a few days even his boss was telling him he was a great employee. Mike just “laughed up his sleeve”. He was no “sucker” and a “headhunter” had already called him about a new position. The “bottom line” was that once he got himself established again, everything would be allright.