Upside down and Get caught

Hello everybody. This is Alisson Viana with a new podcast. For tips, curiosity and other podcasts just go at alissonviana62.blogspot.com.br

So, today I am gonna talk about some new expressions that we can use on our conversations so that it can flow more naturally, okay? And today’s expression’s are: upside down and to get caught.

But just before I start explaining the meaning and usage for them let me tell you guys what happened to me and to my classmates last week. As you may already know I studied in a Federal High School named IFRN where I was supposed to study subjects related to the electronic engineering field. And one of the subjects that I studied there was called hydropneumatic. From pneumatic we understand that it is something operated by air pressure, but please don’t ask me to give more details about it.

Well, the thing is that our teacher Roberto asked us to draw pneumatic circuits, which were on an exercise list. If you have no idea what a pneumatic circuit is just look at the picture, then you will know what I am talking about.

He also told us that one of the drawing would appear on the test that we were going to do on the day next. Since we knew that one of the circuits was going to appear on the test, we knew that the most logical thing to do was to draw them repeatedly. I myself drew twice each drawing and they were twelve, which means that I drew them twenty-four times. At that I was able to draw the circuit upside down.

Okay, as in Portuguese when we know something by heart because we have made that several times before we say that we can do it upside down. In Portuguese we could say: “De cabeça para baixo”. However we can also use this expression in any context, wanna see that?

You know what a bat is, doncha? Ok, a bat is an animal like a mouse with wings that flies at night and is thought to suck human blood. And whoever who is bitten by one of them turns into a vampire. People also mistakenly think that bats are all blind and can’t stand looking at the sunlight. And because of that they are all hidden inside of caves hanging upside down. Did you know that bats sleep upside down? Yes, they do.

Well, but getting back to our story about hydropneumatic let me tell you what happened on the day of the test. I think that it is not need to say that in every test there is always someone looking at little piece of paper that has stuff written on it that you were supposed to have memorized for the test. Or there is someone looking for information in a book while the teacher is not looking. Now, some people are really good at that. They cheat on every test and they never get caught. I wouldn’t say that I am good at cheating because when I am trying to catch any information with a friend close to me I am always very nervous and I can’t pretend that I am comfortable with the situation when I am not. And on that day I was definitely caught off guard because I had forgotten about the test. So all of a sudden I asked for Tuany to help me during the test because I was desperate.

Up to that time I had never cheated, so guess what! I was insensately trying to answer those hard never-ending-questions when I looked at Tuany and asked: “For the love of God, give me the answer for the question number two”. Instead of the answer from Tuany the only thing I heard was Robert’s angrily voice saying: “Tuany and Alisson this is the second time that you guys are talking to each other. I have noticed that. The next time I will collect your tests”.

Yes, we got caught and of course, we decided to make ourselves our tests to avoid worse problems.

Well guys those were the two expressions that I had to share with you. I hope you like it and I hope that they can be useful for you. And don’t forget that whenever you have any question just let me know by leaving a comment.

Thank you very much and see you next time.

Vocabulary

The thing is that – o que acontece é que…

To know something by heart – saber algo de cor

Doncha – maneira muito informal de se dizer: Don’t you?

Cheat – neste caso quer dizer Colar

caught off guard - ser pego de surpresa

So guess what – então, adivinha só

Up to that time – Até aquele momento

Never-ending-questions – perguntas sem fim