Market Leader Upper Steve Jobs reading idioms

Below are some words and expressions with literal and idiomatic meanings, similar to those you studied in Unit 1. What do you think each meaning of each example might be?

1. adopted

2. drop out

3. vision

4. worth (165 million dollars)

5. landmark

6. on his way out

7. he was far from finished

8. release

9. ailing

10. brought to my knees

11. pirates

12. to harness/ a harness

13. launch

14. see another side of something

15. brilliant

Match these pairs of definitions to the words or expressions above:

a) people who take control of ships with the use of force/ people who make and sell fake music, videos etc

b) that would be a good price/ the net assets of a person

c) fall out, e.g. from the back of a truck/ leave school or university before graduation

d) walk behind and look at the part that was hidden from you/ discover something that seems the opposite of what you thought about something

e) bright, e.g. a light/ very intelligent and/ or talented

f) having an inspirational idea of how the future could be/ your physical sight

g) something that will go down in history as an important turning point/ a large or unusual building, natural feature etc that people navigate by

h) leaving the building/ becoming unfashionable or soon to be forced from their position

i) taken into someone else’s family to become their son or daughter/ became company policy

j) in financial trouble that could lead to the end of the company/ ill

k) in a very weak position in the market, almost ready for bankruptcy/ ready to die or surrender

l) to take control of and use/ straps and leads used to control an animal or child

m) bring a product to the market place/ send a ship into the water or a rocket into space for the first time

Go through the list of definitions one more time and decide in each case which one is about the literal or original meaning and which one is about the idiomatic meaning.

You are going to read a text about Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple. All the words and expressions above are taken from that text (in order). Which of the two meanings do you think each word or expression has in the text?

Using what you decided above, discuss what you think the text says about Steve Jobs.

Read the text and check.

Without looking back at the text, match the following common collocations:

astonishing senior

five years his coming

almost movie

hit success

hailed instant

second industry

handsome venture

latest as

the music profits

turning history

go down in questioning

the line of point

a heroic confidence

supreme figure

Look at the text one more time and check your answers.

Again, without looking, see if you can remember how the collocations and idioms above were connected to the story of Steve Jobs.

Do the same with these words:

co-founder

underselling

overlook

What does the first part (= prefix) of each word mean?

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PDF version for easy printing: MLUpperIntSteveJobsIdioms