ESL students taking intermediate-level courses will find this book a helpful supplement to their classroom textbook. Just as important, they'll see it as a reliable guide to the intricacies of idiomatic American English. Why, after all, should a newcomer to the English language be expected to make sense out of such phrases as get on the ball...make a beeline...have a bone to pick? These and dozens more phrases are explained, "translated" into more formal English, and repeated in various contexts.