Idioms around "tea"

British people like tea so much...

I wouldn't do it for all the tea in China

In the same idea:

• there is no way you would ever do it
• You couldn't pay me to do it/that.
• I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole. (or whatever length you want)
• I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world. (or any large quantity of something valuable) - pour tout l'or du monde

For further explanations on the BBC learning service:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/the_teacher/tea.mp4

"BBC" - Horizon 2014 The Power of the Placebo

Placebo or dummy pills

n. pl. pla·ce·bos or pla·ce·boes

1. A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well.

2. An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.

"BBC" - Horizon 2014 The Power of the Placebo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKG1lgI4zIk

They are the miracle pills that shouldn't really work at all. Placebos come in all shapes and sizes, but they contain no active ingredient. Now they are being shown to help treat pain, depression and even alleviate some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Horizon explores why they work, and how we could all benefit from the hidden power of the placebo.

The latest research started to show why the placebo do work and how you can make the most of them. In an experiment, cyclists were given two types of pills thinking that they would have an effect on their performances. In fact, both pills were filled with corn flour. Surprisingly enough, half of the riders were quicker with the corn flour. Why that’s happening, is still an open question.

On the other hand, Dr David Kallmes noticed that there were some reasons to suspect that there were numerous factors at play in the apparent effectiveness of the cement he was using to treat back pain. So he decided to put its established procedure to the test. He designed a trial in which some patients will be given the real procedure and some will be given a placebo. But in this case the placebo couldn’t be a dummy pill. It would have to be a fake operation. They really simulated the procedure for the patient. Within a week of the injection one patient with a broken vertebra was able to play golf again. There was no statistically significant difference in degree of pain relief between the patients who underwent vertebroplasty or placebo. A pretend procedure can be as effective as a vertebroplasty.

Around the world, scientists are investigating how a placebo works, what’s happening inside your body and brain. It has all to do with a neurotransmitter called PGE2. It’s a real neurobiological effect. By scanning the brain of people who have experienced a placebo effect, it has revealed clues about how a placebo effect works. The placebo effect is tapping into the pain control circuitry to release the natural pain killers in our brain like morphins. And this is not just pain killers that placebo can activate. Our brain is capable of producing complex chemicals that we need. Placeboes work by tapping into our chemical systems, our natural pharmacy that our body has evolved. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, the placebo effect can release dopamine just like the real drug. But how much are our expectations capable of. Placebo can alleviate conditions from depression, insomnia, nausea, to attention deficit disorder.

And because, it’s all about your expectations, even the size and shape of a pill can make the difference to how well it works: capsules are more effective than tablets, large capsules are better than smaller ones, expensive medications are more effective than cheap medications, colors make the difference, red capsule is more effective to treating pain, blue capsule is more effective to treating anxiety. There are clear limits to what placebo can do, it won’t treat cancer but in the area where it is effective, scientist are wondering how to make the most of them.

But do we really need to be duped for the placebo to work?  A professor from Harvard put this hypothesis to the test and revealed that 62% of the patients report improvement from a pill they knew was inactive. Understanding this phenomena is the key to unlock our body potential to heal itself. The relationship between the doctor and the patient is also significant and has been reported to optimize the placebo effect.

It seems that kindness can make the difference!

To bully

Grieving the end of a relationship

• to be in mourning, to go through a period of mourning (for death loved one)
• to get closure, to achieve closure, to bring closure to one's grief (for a relationship)

Letting go of a relationship follows the same process as mourning a death, even if you are the one that initiated the breakup and believe that the breakup is the best thing for all involved, the steps are: the denial, anger and finally acceptance.


Acceptance entails making peace with the loss, letting go of the relationship and slowly moving forward with your life.

Begin a new chapter. 
You'll never be able to erase your memory of this person, but you can use the experience to better yourself and to help others. If you wronged someone, resolve never to make the same mistake again, and take it a step further: help others avoid making the same mistake you did. If you were a victim, reach out to other victims, and teach others how to avoid the wrongdoing that you faced. Make the end of your relationship with that person a turning point in your life. Start moving in a new direction.

Live in the present!

Bumptious

  /ˈbʌmpʃəs/

used of temperament lacking retraint or modesty - suffisant, prétentieux

• offfensively, overly assertive
• overly self-confident

To be a pain in the neck

If someone is very annoying and always disturbing you, he/she is a pain in the neck. 
Syn: nuisance, pest, a drag

• Filling out the forms for my recent insurance claim was a real pain in the neck.- casse-pieds
• This assignment is a pain in the neck. Your little brother is a pain in the neck.

Slang: 
it's a drag! - ca me rase
what a drag! - bonjour la galère

"Salon du chocolat"

Last weekend our capital was all about the Salon du Chocolat. After hitting major trendsetting cities like Paris, Cannes, London, Cairo, New York and Shanghai, the Salon du Chocolat is finally setting up shop in the city it should call home: Brussels.

What can you find at the Salon du Chocolat? Pretty much everything you could possibly imagine. There's loads of chocolate to nibble on (grignoter) and delight (tickle: réjouir) your taste buds (papilles gustatives), of course, and there are workshops with famous chefs and patissiers too, workshops for children, books about chocolate, a fashion show with naught but sugary creations on the catwalk, a work of art made especially for the Salon by Belgian chocolatier Godiva and lots more.

There are different types of cocoa bean which are used in chocolate production today. They are the noble Criollo, the common Forastero and a hybrid between the two, the Trinitario. Criollo and Trinitario are often referred to as fine or flavour cocoa beans, while Forastero is considered the ordinary or bulk bean for mass production (although there are exceptions to this rule -- see below). Over 90% percent of the world's cocoa is bulk production, mostly from the Forastero bean. The remainder is fine/flavour cocoa, from most of the Trinitario and all of the Criollo varieties.

TRADITIONALLY CHOCOLATE IS NOT thought of as healthy -- after all it is mostly (cocoa) fat and sugar. In recent years however this idea has been challenged by numerous studies examining the health effects of chocolate. As chocolate is a complex substance, its constituents can affect the body in many different ways:

Flavonoids such as epicatechin have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, since they act as anti-oxidants and thus reduce cholesterol levels.

Theobromine is the defining chemical component of cocoa, which gives it its bitterness. It is a stimulant, but not as strong as caffeine.

Tryptophan is an amino acid from which the body makes serotonin, a messenger in the brain. High levels of serotonin are usually associated with an elevated mood.

Phenylethylamine is an amphetamine, and is responsible for chocolate's reputation as an aphrodisiac.

Anandamide is a cannabinoid -- it targets the same regions of the brain as cannabis. The quantities involved however, are once again very small, so that one is much more likely to be sick than high after consuming enough chocolate for anandamide to have an effect!

If chocolate is consumed in moderation -- perhaps 10 or 20g a day -- the beneficial compounds such as flavonoids outweigh the negative effects of the sugar and fat. This holds particularly for dark chocolate.

Today Belgium produces 172,000 tons of chocolate per year, almost 70,500 tons of which are consumed within the country. 

The world is your oyster!

One rules the world, one is in charge of everything.

• I feel like the world is my oyster today. - le monde m'appartient
• The world is my oyster! I'm in love!

if the world is your oyster, you have the ability and the freedom to do anything or go anywhere 

• You're young and healthy and you've got no commitments, so the world is your oyster.

Agony column

a column in a newspaper or magazine offering advice on personal problems to readers who write in.

In the same idea:

gutter press = presse à scandale
classified advertisements = petites annonces
comic(s) = magazines illustrés
glossy = magazine au papier de luxe
newsagent = marchand de journaux



More information:

• Classified advertisements' is also known as 'The classifieds" or "Small ads". 
• The larger (employment) ads are known as Display Advertisements.
• Comics are very specifically aimed at children and are usually published weekly on newsprint (newspaper type) paper. They are essentially cartoons (bandes dessinées)
• The person who gives advice, in a newspaper or magazine, to correspondents with relationship problems is called an Agony Aunt. 

To get one's wires crossed

When people get their wires crossed, they have a different understanding of the same situation - s'emmêler les pinceaux

• Somehow we got our wires crossed because I'd got the 23rd written down in my diary and Jen had the 16th.

Syn: misinterpretation, mistaking