A Stone's Throw Away

A stone's throwaway in Brooklyn at just A STONE'S THROW AWAY.

I took a picture of this paper's front-page when I noticed the idiom on it. Do you know what A STONE'S THROW AWAY means? Basically, if something is A STONE'S THROW AWAY, it means it is not very far. For example, you can say "There's a nice park just A STONE'S THROW AWAY from my house." You're basically saying that there's a park not very far from your house.

The exact distance, of course, is relative and depends on what you consider close or near. In other words, you can say that New Jersey is just A STONE'S THROW AWAY from Manhattan so you may consider living there while you work or go to school in Manhattan. However, if you live in New York, you probably won't go to New Jersey to buy groceries; it's too far. You'd probably go to a store that's just A STONE'S THROW AWAY from your home or your job. You get the picture, right?

[GET THE PICTURE - understand]

Proverb: You reap what you sow

Do you recognize the proverb on the first line? It says, "You reap what you sow." It's a common English ADAGE that means we eventually get what we put out. Good DEEDS and words bring nice things back to us, while evil words and actions BOOMERANG negativity back. Michele in the TOEFL class came across this 4-line poem on one of her apps and asked what it meant. After we went over the vocabulary (REAP & SOW), most of the class quickly got the idea and said they had a similar expression in their language.

REAP - to collect; harvest; get
SOW - to plant; cultivate

ADAGE - a saying; proverb

BOOMERANG - to return

The poem is sort of an extension to the proverb. Do you agree with it? Can you think of a situation in your life when you thought of a goal, acted on it, made a habit of your actions until it became part of who you are, which then helped you reach your goal?