Question

1. Dieting is a matter of life and breadth. 2. Speaking ill of the dead is a grave mistake. 3. I recently spent money on detergent to unclog my kitchen sink. It was money down the drain. 4. I once had a very bad dream about my horse. It was a knight mare. 5. What is the difference between a conductor and a teacher? The conductor minds the train and a teacher trains the mind. What each sentence is trying to convey?

Answer 1

2) Grave is a hole dug to bury a corpse, and also it an adjective meaning 'solemn'. So it is a witty sentence, using ' a grave mistake' also refers to the dead.
3) Money down a drain- is an idiom used to say that money is wasted. Here it has a reference that money was spent for cleaning the kitchen drain. Hence it can mean that the detergent bought did not work, and it was like pouring the money down in the drain.
4) original word meaning 'bad dream' is nightmare. but here it has been modified to "knight mare". A knight is a chess piece shaped like a horse. Hence the bad dream about the horse and knight mare has a close resemblance.
5) Here the words 'mind' and 'train' have been used differently; as a verb as well as as a noun. Trains the mind- here train is used as a verb and mind as a noun. While in 'minds the train'- it is the opposite. Thus the 'similarity' and the difference between the conductor and the teacher has been brought out subtly.

Hope this answer helps.
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