[No. 161] I've dug into some useful English expressions from scenes in the Disney movie 'The Good Dinosaur'.

1. When that critter's taken care of, you'll put your mark on the silo right next to mine. / I'll take care of the critter, Poppa.
take care of ... is the key idiom here. Both have the same meaning, but the first is used in the passive voice, and the other is used in a standard sentence.

take care of ... is something you likely studied in school primarily as meaning "to take care of / look after someone," but that meaning is very limited, and in reality, the meaning is much broader.

First, the first expansion of that is in phrases like I’ll take care of that work for you, where it is used when you "take on / handle" something. But I think you can guess how it goes from "look after" to "take on."

The object has simply changed from a "person" to a "thing." However, the lines from Poppa and Arlo, When that critter's taken care of, ... and I'll take care of the critter, Poppa. involve an even broader use of take care of...

Since the critter is a bad guy who steals food, take care of wouldn't make sense as "look after" or "take on."

Here, it is used to mean "take care of" or "dispose of." Therefore, "When that critter's taken care of, ..." means "When that creature is disposed of, ..." Also, "I'll

take care of the critter, Poppa." means "I will take care of the creature, Dad." However, when you think about it, it's strange. This is because the meanings of "take care of" in the previous two examples ("to look after" and "to handle") have a

positive image, whereas the two that appeared in this line have a negative image.

"To dispose of" leads to "to kill," so it is the exact opposite of "to look after." Thinking about it this way, take care of ... is also profound... ② It won't

stand a chance.
stand a chance is an idiom meaning "to have a chance of success (winning)."

stand has the meaning of "to endure," but it means "to endure (be able to face) the possibility (of success)."

Being able to face the possibility of success connects to "having a chance of success."

However, not just success,

We can’t stand a chance of surviving this storm. "There is no chance of surviving this storm." He doesn’t

stand a chance of passing the exam. "He has no chance of passing the exam." It is often expressed as

stand a chance of …ing. stand a chance is one of those expressions whose meaning is hard to grasp at a glance, so I would like to use it more. ③ Move along

, leaf. Move along. "Go away, leaf. You're in the way." The point here is "along
." along means "along," and is used like "I walked along the river." move along literally means "move along," but since the difference from

move is hard to understand, I asked ChatGPT.

”Move!” is a short and direct command meaning "move right now," but “Move along!” is a command used when someone is lingering somewhere, meaning "keep moving on."

“Move! You’re blocking the door!” (short and direct)

“Move along, there’s nothing to see here.” (gentle command)

You can understand how the word along, which means "moving along something," conveys a sense of gentleness.

When Arlo said “Move along, leaf,” the leaf was fluttering and approaching Arlo, so the timid Arlo likely wanted to tell the leaf, “You don't need to be here, so don't stop, just go somewhere else.”

Move, leaf. would also work, but it would be a direct and quite harsh way of saying it. It might be interpreted as "Move along." because of Arlo's gentle personality.Move along.

Dad gets angry at Arlo for not catching the thief who tried to steal their food.

① It was biting, and coming at me, and screeching, and...
coming at me is translated as "came towards me" in the subtitles. The key point is the preposition “at”.

The word "come" is usually used with "to," as in "come to..." meaning "to arrive at..." While "to" is a preposition that expresses "direction and arrival," "at" has the image of "aiming at a single point."

Therefore, come at me carries the nuance of "coming toward me as a target."

Arlo said, "It was biting, and coming at me ..." because the thief was trying to bite him and coming toward him."

If you were to use "to" as in, "It was biting, and coming to me...," with "to," it would mean "coming to me (to meet me)," and the sense of urgency would be lost.

Come to versus come at — it is interesting how the nuance changes significantly with the preposition. I would like to delve deeper into other prepositions as well. ② It was biting, and coming at me, and

screeching, and...
screech means "to shout in a high-pitched voice." It is that high-pitched ear-piercing shriek. "She

screeched at him for being late." "Shout" also means "to yell," and while there is a difference in pitch, I think it is easier to remember if you think of it as a synonym for shout

and screech.

Since you see "shout" often, remembering the "high-pitched" screech each time will help it stick even better.

This screech can be used not only for "voices" but also for "high-pitched and sharp" sounds, such as tires slipping or car brakes. "The car

screeched to a halt." "The car stopped with a screech."