Fill in the blank with the most appropriate idiom. You should have seen the…
2025
Fill in the blank with the most appropriate idiom. You should have seen the state he was in before his interview. He was as anxious as _______________.
- A.
a cool cucumber
- B.
a cat on a hot tin roof
- C.
a dare devil
- D.
a copy cat
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Correct answer: B
An idiom is a fixed phrasal expression whose overall meaning does not come literally from its individual words. In an 'as ___ as ___' simile-idiom, the whole phrase functions as a single descriptive unit that must match the exact quality named earlier in the sentence -- here, 'anxious'. Picking the right idiom therefore requires knowing its conventional meaning as a whole, not just its surface vocabulary.
The sentence describes the person's state as 'anxious' before an interview, so the blank must be filled by an idiom whose established meaning is nervousness, restlessness, or agitation. 'A cat on a hot tin roof' is a well-established English idiom (popularised by the title of Tennessee Williams's 1955 play) meaning someone who is extremely nervous, uneasy, or on edge -- exactly the quality of being 'anxious'.
The other idioms describe different qualities and do not fit 'anxious':
'A cool cucumber' describes someone calm and composed under pressure -- the opposite of anxious.
'A dare devil' describes someone who takes bold, reckless risks -- unrelated to nervousness.
'A copy cat' describes someone who imitates others -- unrelated to nervousness.
So the idiom 'a cat on a hot tin roof' is the one that correctly completes the sentence, matching the sense of being anxious.