童鞋们在备考托福听力的时候不知道会不会遇到这样的问题，我刚才听到一个特别熟悉的词组，我也能把它写下来，可是这个词组好像表达的不是它原来本身的意思了，变成了一个新的通用地道表达，一遇见这样的情况，我就彻底晕菜了，这些词到底是什么意思啊?那为了帮助大家解决这个问题，这次我们来总结一下这些经常出现的托福听力地道小词~

　　a big shot/wheel American & Australian, informal

　　an important or powerful person in a group or organization

　　Mr Madison is a big shot in the world of finance.

　　a breath of fresh air

　　someone or something that is new and different and makes everything seem more exciting

　　Angela's like a breath of fresh air when she comes to stay.

　　After all the criticism, his positive comments came as a breath of fresh air.

　　be all ears

　　to be waiting eagerly to hear about something:

　　I'm all ears - tell us what they had to say.

　　be all eyes

　　to watch someone or something with a lot of interest:

　　We were all eyes as the Princess emerged from the car.

　　have butterflies (in your stomach)

　　to feel very nervous, usually about something you are going to do

　　She had butterflies in her stomach as she walked out onto the stage.

　　for a song

　　very cheaply

　　This is one of my favorite pieces of furniture and I got it for a song in a market.

　　Property prices have come right down - houses are going for a song (= being sold very cheaply) at the moment.

　　go by the book, do sth by the book

　　to do something exactly as the rules tell you

　　My lawyer always goes strictly by the book.

　　This is a private deal - we don't have to do everything by the book.

　　face the music

　　to accept criticism or punishment for something that you have done

　　When the missing money was noticed, he chose to disappear rather than face the music.

　　first things first

　　used to tell someone that more important things should be done before less important things:

　　First things first, let's have something to eat.

　　dos and don'ts

　　rules about what you must do and what you must not do in a particular situation

　　In the back of the guide there's a list of the dos and don'ts of local etiquette.

　　save (sth) for a rainy day

　　to keep an amount of money for a time in the future when it might be needed

　　She has a couple of thousand pounds kept aside which she's saving for a rainy day.

　　break the ice

　　to make people who have not met before feel more relaxed with each other:

　　Someone suggested that we play a party game to break the ice.

　　Let's break the ice by having everyone give their name and say a few words about their job.

　　call it a day informal

　　to stop doing something, especially working

　　After playing together for 20 years, the band has finally decided to call it a day.

　　It's almost midnight - I think it's time to call it a day.

　　eat your words

　　to admit that something you said before was wrong:

　　Sam said it would never sell, but when he sees these sales figures he'll have to eat his words.

　　have it both ways

　　to benefit from two opposing things:

　　You can't have it both ways - you either work longer and get paid more or have more leisure time and get paid less.

　　be in hot water (ALSO get into hot water)

　　to be in or get into a difficult situation in which you are in danger of being criticized or punished:

　　He found himself in hot water over his comments about immigration.

　　keep your head down

　　to do or say as little as possible in order to avoid problems or arguments

　　The best we can do is keep our heads down and hope that people will soon get used to the new system.

　　let nature take its course

　　to allow someone or something to live or die naturally

　　By this stage, her illness was so severe that the doctors agreed to let nature take its course rather than prolong her suffering.

　　We plant the seeds in springtime and then just let nature take its course.

　　no sweat