T-learning # Idiom
Speak Like a Native

to hit the books

Choose the correct definition a, b or c.

a) to study

Well done ! That’s the right answer.

This expression ’to hit the books’ is used to say that someone studies hard, often for an exam.

French translation

se mettre le nez dans les livres, bûcher

How NOT to translate : *frapper les livres

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Examples in context

Pays to hit the books ! New research finds that students with better GPAs in high school earn more after college (but girls still make far less than boys even though they are stronger students)’

A new study has revealed that students who do better academically in high school will go on to earn more money later in life.
The findings prove that spending extra time on studies pays off for both sexes, but especially for teenage boys.
A one-point difference in a student’s grade point average could lead to a double-digit percentage pay increase.

For young women, a boost in their GPA corresponds to a 13.77 per cent pay increase and men have an 11.85 per cent increase.
Though young women have a higher boost, they are still lagging far behind their male peers in terms of pay overall- even though their GPA scores are ’significantly higher’.

The Daily Mail, 27th May 2014

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’Hollywood hits the books hard this fall’

After a summer break of superheroes and transforming robots, Hollywood’s hitting the books harder than ever this fall.

Cinema schedules are starting to resemble best-seller lists. Between now and the onslaught of Oscar-ready heavy-hitters arriving in November, Hollywood will release more than two dozen films based on books, with genres ranging from mystery novels (Liam Neeson as a private investigator in Lawrence Block’s A Walk Among the Tombstones, out Sept. 19) to horror tomes (Daniel Radcliffe gets devilish in the Halloween-pegged Horns by Joe Hill, Oct. 31).

USA Today, 2nd September 2014

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Everyday usage

I spent the weekend pounding the books. I gotta go home and hit the books. I have finals next week.

To learn English, she not only hit the books but also practiced conversing with others everyday.

b) to sort out accounts

Sorry, wrong answer. Please try again.

c) to be violent

Sorry, wrong answer. Please try again.


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