An olive branch

When you have a quarrel with your friend, your teacher might tell you, 

“Can you think of extending an olive branch to your friend?” 

Does your teacher ask you to give a branch of an olive tree to your friend? An olive branch is a symbol of peace. “Extending an olive branch” （伸出橄欖枝；願意講和）does not mean that you are giving out a real olive branch to your friend. Instead, it means that you are making an offer of peace with your friend to end the quarrel. 

High-flyer

Before aeroplanes were invented, people dreamed of being able to fly like birds. Many brave inventors thought of different ways to fly high in the sky. However, many experiments failed until the Wright brothers invented the world’s first successful aeroplane in the 19th century.

We can say a thing like an aeroplane which flies high in the air is a “high-flyer”.

The engineers were pleased that they had successfully designed an aeroplane to be a powerful high-flyer（高空飛行器）.

Thumbs up

Very often in our daily lives, we make a thumbs-up sign or see someone giving a thumbs-up sign. In recent years, this sign has also become a popular emoji on the internet, particularly on the Facebook social media site and WhatsApp Messenger.

What do you want to express when you send this emoji to your friends? According to a survey, people use this emoji to express a lot of emotions such as “good job”, “keep it up” and “proud of you”.

Bring home the bacon

Bacon is preserved meat which comes from the back or sides of a pig. This food is very popular in Western countries. So you may be able to infer the meaning of the idiom “bring home the bacon”, when a worker says,

“I must work hard so that I can bring home the bacon.”

The idiom “bring home the bacon” does not mean that the worker brings the meat to his family to eat. This actually means that the worker can earn a living, especially for his family.