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English phrases: positive or negative connotations? [C1 lvl]

Read the sentences and decide whether they convey positive or negative feelings.
Example: "I'm having a bad hair day today." = negative because it implies that the person does not feel attractive today.
Quiz by AlexThirkell
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Last updated: February 8, 2021
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First submittedFebruary 8, 2021
Times taken136
Average score90.0%
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1. The teacher said that my homework was not up to scratch.
positive
negative
"not up to scratch" = "not good enough"
2. I know that he has my best interests at heart.
positive
negative
"he has my best interests at heart" = "he wants me to succeed"
3. I made a hasty judgement and regretted it immediately.
positive
negative
You should always think carefully, and then make a considered decision!
4. When you call the help centre they put you on hold for hours!
positive
negative
Nobody likes to wait on the phone for a long time...
5. We feel special ties with this beach because it's where we got engaged.
positive
negative
Important, wonderful events can create "special ties" with the places where they happened.
6. I could feel his eyes boring into me from across the room.
positive
negative
This means he was staring at me, which is not nice.
7. The school has state-of-the-art classroom facilities.
positive
negative
"state-of-the-art" = "modern, with the newest ideas, designs, resources, materials etc"
8. He always looks down on other people.
positive
negative
If you look down on someone, it means that you think you are better than them.
9. Elisa was the driving force behind this community clean-up project.
positive
negative
Well done Elisa for having a big influence on people, and motivating them to clean up their community!
10. This area is starting to suffer from brain drain.
positive
negative
When highly educated people leave an area, that area suffers "brain drain". It becomes harder to support specialist sectors such as medicine, business, law, education, finance etc.
+1
Level 54
Feb 9, 2021
Very hard
+1
Level 75
Oct 22, 2021
I did this for some advanced English students, I was trying to better connect English words with feelings. Imagine talking to someone and they say one of these sentences, would you react positively or negatively?

I'm not sure Jetpunk is the place for specific English teaching quizzes though. Just browsing, playing and commenting naturally is probably the best use of this site for language students.