[ti:Words and Their Stories Hold Your Horses]
[ar:Faith Lapidus]
[al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES]
[by:www.51voa.com]
[00:00.00]Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
[00:22.46]Today, we tell about "horse" expressions. 
[00:28.88]In the past, many people depended on horses for transportation, 
[00:32.11]farming and other kinds of work. 
[00:36.20]A lot of people still like to ride horses. 
[00:40.18]And, horse racing is also popular. 
[00:44.21]So it is not surprising that Americans 
[00:47.39]still use expressions about the animals.
[00:52.92]Long ago, people who were rich or important 
[00:55.95]rode horses that were very tall. 
[00:59.88]Today, if a girl acts like 
[01:01.97]she is better than everyone else, 
[01:06.51]you might say she should get off her high horse.
[01:10.44]Yesterday my children wanted me 
[01:12.88]to take them to the playground. 
[01:15.57]But I had to finish my work, 
[01:20.45]so I told them to hold your horses. 
[01:23.74]Wait until I finish what I am doing. 
[01:28.73]My two boys like to compete against each other 
[01:30.87]and play in a violent way. 
[01:35.15]I always tell them to stop horsing around 
[01:37.48]or someone could get hurt.
[01:43.36]We live in a small town. It does not have any 
[01:47.19]exciting activities to offer visitors. 
[01:51.37]My children call it a one-horse town.
[01:55.71]Last night, I got a telephone call 
[01:59.14]while I was watching my favorite television show. 
[02:02.49]I decided not to answer it 
[02:05.42]because wild horses could not 
[02:07.61]drag me away from the television. 
[02:10.80]There was nothing that could stop me 
[02:13.34]from doing what I wanted to do.
[02:17.37]Sometimes you get information 
[02:20.10]straight from the horse's mouth. 
[02:23.09]It comes directly from the person 
[02:25.53]who knows most about the subject 
[02:27.87]and is the best source. 
[02:31.85]Let us say your teacher tells you 
[02:34.98]there is going to be a test tomorrow. 
[02:39.11]You could say you got the information 
[02:41.75]straight from the horse's mouth. 
[02:47.03]However, you would not want to call your teacher a horse!
[02:51.86]You may have heard this expression: 
[02:55.20]You can lead a horse to water, 
[02:58.34]but you cannot make him drink. 
[03:02.67]That means you can give someone advice 
[03:07.05]but you cannot force him to do something 
[03:09.45]he does not want to do.
[03:13.08]Sometimes a person fights a battle 
[03:17.86]that has been decided or keeps arguing a question 
[03:19.70]that has been settled. 
[03:24.38]We say this is like beating a dead horse.
[03:30.06]In politics, a dark-horse candidate 
[03:33.50]is someone who is not well known 
[03:36.04]to the public. Sometimes, 
[03:40.66]a dark horse unexpectedly wins an election.
[03:44.60]Another piece of advice is, 
[03:48.63]do not change horses in midstream. 
[03:53.35]You would not want to get off one horse and 
[03:56.24]on to another in the middle of a river. 
[04:00.47]Or make major changes in an activity 
[04:03.95]that has already begun. In the past, 
[04:06.74]this expression was used as 
[04:10.03]an argument to re-elect a president, 
[04:14.17]especially during a time when the country was at war.
[04:32.09]This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. 
[04:37.17]I'm Faith Lapidus. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES 
[04:42.00]at our website, 51voa.com