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Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 207. The idiom today is bark up
the wrong tree. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
If someone is barking up the wrong tree, he or she has made the wrong choice or
is following the wrong course of action or accusing the wrong person of
something. So this could be used in several different ways. All right. Let's continue here. The origin of this phrase is believed to come from
hunting. A hunting dog will usually bark at the bottom of a tree in which a
hunted animal or bird is in to inform his master where the prey is. You know
where the hunted animal is. So he'll be barking ( ruff, ruff, ruff) at the bottom of the tree. Okay.
However, sometimes the hunted prey has already left. They're already gone or
moved on to another tree. Thus the dog is barking up the wrong
tree. Okay. Let's look at some examples here.
Example number one. Most conservative political commentators think Muller you
know, the special counsel Muller is barking up the wrong tree with his
investigation of Trump and Russian collusion after the 2016 elections. Yeah.
If they haven't found anything in almost two years. There's really probably
nothing there. There may have never been anything there. There might have been
some cheating in that 2016 election but it probably wasn't here. He's probably
barking up the wrong tree. He's following the wrong course of
action or possibly even accusing the wrong person.
Let's look at number two. If you major in Medieval Studies and expect to have many
good job opportunities when you graduate, you are barking up the wrong
tree. If you choose that major you will have limited job opportunities.
Yeah. So in this case again.You are probably following the wrong course. Your
following the wrong course of action if you want to have a good career and a lot of
job opportunities that's not the thing to major in. So you're barking up the
wrong tree in that sense, And let's look at the last
one. If you imagine that everything will be peaches and cream you know , everything
is sweet and perfect. And you will have a fairytale life by marrying into the
royal family you may be barking up the wrong tree. I'm sure there's a lot of
pressures behind the scenes of living in a royal family, A lot of expectations. You
have the media will be hunting you down and you know if you if you look at a
Princess Diana's life it didn't seem like a fairy tale. So if that was your
goal. Then by marrying into the royal family you may be barking up the wrong
tree. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.