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English In Use - 'In A Pickle'

A selection of headlines from stories in the news. They use English in a way that might think is intended to confuse but it's all perfectly clear to the native speaker.

The popular idiom 'In A Pickle' (which means to be in trouble or in a mess) has been used as the headline in The Independent, on a story that London's Gherkin skyscraper building is to be auctioned off after going into receivership. 

The Guardian goes one further with, "Gherkin's salad days over amid financial pickle for London tower", using yet another idiom "salad days", which refers to a time of optimism.

The building, officially called 30 St Mary Axe, was given the nickname, The Gherkin, because of its resemblance to a savoury pickled cucumber.  They could have called it something else, but then we wouldn't have been able to feature it.  There have been a rash of new buildings with strange names, such as The Shard, the Cheesegrater and the Walkie Talkie.  

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