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sniff the wrong underwear, and etc. while reading John Grisham's "Firm", chapter 22, the phrases in the following dialogues puzzled me, need your help, 1. "It's easy work, unless you sniff the wrong underwear." 2. "You and I must agree that you will hand us the firm on a silver platter." 3. "We will find you a job, fix your nose, do anything you what." 4. "The mob never forgets. They're worse than elephants." (why elephants?) 5." The odds are in your favor.", "So I play the odds?" 6. "You either take the money and run, or you play big shot lawyer and bet that we never infiltrate. ""That's a hell of a choice. "("a hell of" means what here? ) 7. "Any lawyer worth this salt knew the first offer had to be rejected." 8. "And if we close the gold mine and send all your Gucci-footed hotshots to jail?" (wearing Gucci shoes? rich people?) 9."For now, your time is up. Voyles is breathing down my neck, and things must happen quickly" thanks a lot.
Feb 16, 2012 1:13 AM
Answers · 5
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#2. "To hand somebody something on a silver platter" means to give it to them for free or very inexpensively.
February 16, 2012
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#4. There is a saying in English: "Elephants never forget." Not true, but that is what we say.
February 16, 2012
1. [Need context here - a lot of it.] 2. To hand somebody something on a silver platter, you give it to them almost for nothing and do extra things also. 3. We will service any need you have, regardless of what it is. 4. There is a saying in the West - "An elephant never forgets." 5. Odds are in your favor = your chances are good. Odds are probability 6 "A hell of.." - it either means very good or very bad - bad in this case. 7. If you are worth your salt, you perform a valuable service. Salt used to be very valuable and was even used as money. 8. Guccis are very expensive shoes. 9. If someone is breathing down your neck, they are putting a lot of pressure on you or are close to catching you.
February 16, 2012
#9. To breath down somebody's neck means to pressure them to do something or to hurry them.
February 16, 2012
#6. Here, "hell of a choice" means "not a very good choice". Really, it means it's a "great choice", but he's being sarcastic, so it means the opposite.
February 16, 2012
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