Useful idioms

If you are going to visit English speaking country it’s worth learning some English idioms. They will help you to look like an advanced speaker. As it said, unless you understand and use idioms in conversation you don’t know language. Well, here are some useful and frequently used ones:
To feel under the weather – to feel not very well;
To pull somebody’s leg – to joke;
To be on cloud nine – to be extremely happy;
Keep your hair on! (informal) – Calm down!
To know something inside out – to know every detail of something;
Haven’t (got)/don’t have a clue – don’t know at all;
By hook or by crook – using whatever methods are necessary;
Ring a bell – think you’ve heard something before;
Makes your mouth water – makes you want to eat it;
The icing on the cake – something that makes a good situation even better.
And here is a topic to show the using of idioms in context.
Bella has been feeling under the weather for weeks. Someone advised her to eat 100 kg of carrot to feel better. Obviously someone was pulling Bella’s leg but she hadn’t a clue. Besides benefit of eating carrots rang a bell. She hired a car to bring such an amount of food home. Bella peeled carrots, washed them and prepared herself to eat them all by hook or by crook. Unfortunately 100 kg of orange vegetable didn’t make her mouth water. Suddenly the phone rang. It was her old friend Nelly. Nelly was upset with situation in city zoo where rabbits were dying from hunger. Bella liked animals and decided to donate all her carrots for poor rabbits. Two friends were on cloud nine to solve that problem. The icing on the cake for Bella was that that Nelly turned to be a high-class doctor and knew her job inside out. So she gave Bella several useful tips about health and finally said: “Keep your hair on! You’ll be all right!”.