Having fun with figurative language

This excerpt for non-commercial use is from http://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Values-Intermediate-Conversation-Edition/dp/0130978817 by Irene Schoenberg (p. 54). Although Mrs. Schoenberg's target audience is the ESL (English as a Second Language) student, the areas of English also fit for learning with people who are recovering from aphasia or TBI and re-learning English.

Five words are in the Word Bank: 

disease             face             compliments            foot             red

1.  When his mom kissed him after the game, he turned beet-------

2.  I really wanted to laugh, but I had to be serious. It was hard to keep a straight                 _

3.  He always says embarrassing things. He suffers from foot-in-mouth

4.  When I first started my job, I said the wrong thing to my boss. We started off on the wrong -------

5.  Last night my aunt said she was surprised I could cook so well. She has a

habit of giving left-handed -------

 Match the idioms on the left with their definitions on the right. Write the letter on the line.

         1. start off on the wrong foot

         2. keep a straight face

         3. foot-in-mouth disease

         4. turn beet red

         5. a left-handed compliment

a.  get embarrassed

b.  a comment that is positive, but a little negative too

c. have a bad beginning

d.  be serious when you want to laugh

e.  a habit of saying the wrong thing