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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 283. The idiom today is to turn

  • over a new leaf. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone turns over a

  • new leaf, he or she plans to change one's way or

  • behavior and begin again or reform, especially reform , especially to try to

  • change your ways in a better way or at least start over again. Okay. Let's

  • continue. Many people believe the origin goes back to the 16th century. The leaf

  • you know, in turn over a new leaf ....Some people say well why a leaf ? What ? Why ?

  • What does a leaf have to do with anything ? The word leaf actually refers

  • to a page in a book. At that time, pages used to be called leaves. All right.

  • Therefore turning over a new leaf was turning to a blank page. All right.

  • Thus your new life is you know, like a blank page. You can add new or different

  • details or at least start in a better way or in the better direction. The

  • direction that you want to say that you are like this person. So you're turning

  • over a new leaf. You're turning over a new page. A blank

  • page. And now you, you want details of your life. To be better than they were

  • before. That's the idea behind it. Okay. Anyway, let's take a look at several

  • examples here. Example number one. After getting out of prison, Jack decided to

  • turn over a new leaf and become a law-abiding citizen

  • to save his family. Yeah. Maybe this is probably somebody ... maybe they got

  • arrested ... maybe several times before and they spend time in prison and maybe they

  • learned their lesson now and they really want to change their life and go in

  • another direction. They want... he wants to turn over a new leaf.

  • Yeah. And become a law-abiding citizen. He doesn't want to break the law anymore

  • and you know maybe, maybe the real reason is to save his family. Because maybe you

  • know, they may not put up with much more. If he doesn't change this time. So that's

  • what he plans on turning over a new leaf. Okay. Let's look at the second one here.

  • When he got out of rehab you know , like rehabilitation,

  • he swore never to touch drugs again. So, yeah this is probably somebody with a

  • drug problem. He was determined to turn over a new leaf and improve his life. So

  • again you know, a new page in the book. A new you know, hopefully his life will go

  • in a new direction for him. Good luck. Because not everybody can do that. A lot

  • of people are not successful but a few are. All right. Let's look at the third one.

  • Well this one might be where you know, it's the opposite way. You have to give

  • up on him. He is never going to turn over a new leaf. So you're probably telling

  • somebody that's hoping or wishing somebody will do this. That they will

  • change their ways and they will improve their behavior or become better. But this

  • other person is telling him forget it. II's never going to happen. He's never going

  • to turn over a new leaf. So it could be used that way too. Okay. Anyway, I hope you

  • got it. I hope you found it interesting. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your

  • time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 283. The idiom today is to turn

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