IDIOMS ABOUT COMPREHENSION AND KNOWLEDGE

TO GET THE HANG OF SMTH – to learn how to do smth.

Mike Klutz was a well-known scientist and there was no question that he was a very smart guy but he could never get the hang of any kind of paperwork.

TO GET ONE’S HEAD AROUND SMTH – to be able to understand or accept smth.

He just couldn’t get his head around the bureaucracy that kept following him around all his life.

TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES – to understand the implied meaning of smth even if it is not stated openly (1).

TO COME NATURALLY – to be natural and easy to do for someone (2).

Mike lived under the impression that most people were born with the ability to read between the lines (1), and that’s why paperwork came naturally to everyone but him (2).

TO GO IN ONE EAR AND OUT OF THE OTHER – if smth goes in one ear and out of the other, it means you immediately forget smth you’ve just been told.

Whenever someone tried to explain to him how to write a simple application letter or how to pay his bills, it just went in one ear and out of the other.

TO GET THE WRONG END OF THE STICK – to misunderstand.

No matter how many times Mike tried to understand what was going on in a bank or a post office, he always ended up getting the wrong end of the stick.

JUMP TO THE CONCLUSION – to quickly form an opinion without having all the facts.

Bank managers and post office employees often jumped to the conclusion that Mike Klutz had some developmental problems.

TO PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER – to make a correct guess based on the info you have.

But may if they tried to put two and two together, they would realize that Mike was just an awkward guy who felt lost in a bureaucratic environment.

TO FIGURE SMTH OUT – to understand, to solve smth.

He had trouble dealing with paperwork at his research center, too, but one day he finally figured it out and started doing it flawlessly.

TO TAKE ON BOARD – to accept, to consider an idea.

But the following week new standards were suddenly taken on board by his research center.

TO NOT HAVE A CLUE – to not know anything about smth.

And once again he didn’t have a clue how to fill out his paperwork.

TO GET UP TO SPEED ON – to have the most recent info about smth.

In the end, the very idea of getting up to speed on the bureaucratic processes seemed impossible to Mike Klutz.

Test your knowledge of idioms about knowledge and comprehension here:

Test 1

Test 2

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