 It is not all roses: not always easy and pleasant condition

 I couldn’t get enough of his stories

 Bring sth home to sb: to make sb realize how important, difficult or serious sth is
 Goad sb/sth into doing sth: to keep irritating or annoying sb/sth until they react
 Live up to sth: to do as well as or be as good as other people expect you to
 Put up with sb/sth: to accept unpleasant behaviour and unpleasant situation, even though you
don’t like it
 The chances are that: it is likely that
 Cold calling: suddenly calling on students by name to participate when they weren’t expecting it;
the practice of telephoning sb that you do not know, in order to sell them sth
 Come/get to gripes with sth: to begin to understand and deal with sth difficult
 Up against sth: facing problems or opposition
 The nuts and bolts of sth: the basic practical details of a subject or an activity
 To set the bar(very high): to set a standard of quality or performance
 Talk down to sb: to talk to someone as if they were less clever than you
 Prim and proper: always behaving in a careful and formal way, and easily shocked by anything
that is rude
 Make a dent in sth: to reduce the amount of sth, especially money
 Under the cloak of sth
 To get the cricks out