The first one is \u201ccrack down on.\u201d Anyone who\u2019s against cheating <\/span> in international sporting competitions will probably be happy that the IOC is cracking down on cheating, meaning they are punishing <\/span> those who cheat. To crack down on something means to punish or try to stop something that is wrong or not allowed <\/span>. It\u2019s often said that police are cracking down on drunk-driving <\/span>; they are looking harder <\/span> for people driving under the influence <\/span> of alcohol. Police might also crack down on texting while driving\u2014they\u2019re looking harder, and if they catch you <\/span>, you\u2019ll get a fine <\/span>. Hopefully, the IOC continues to crack down against cheating because this type of cheating harms <\/span> the ideals of competition <\/span>. Maybe their crackdown will include stricter testing <\/span> or stronger punishments <\/span>. In American football, they are cracking down against violent hits <\/span> that can give players concussions <\/span>. Don\u2019t ask me where this expression comes from, since it has nothing to do with the word crack or the word down\u2014but it is fairly <\/span> common to say. Here are a few more examples. These days, companies are cracking down on employees <\/span> who don\u2019t treat women with respect <\/span> in the workplace <\/span>. Now that we\u2019re heading for the Christmas shopping season, stores and shopping centers might be cracking down on shoplifting <\/span>. YouTube is cracking down on users who post offensive content <\/span>. In Honduras, the government ordered the police to crack down on protesters in the streets.<\/p>\n The other expression I wanted to highlight this week is \u201ccaught up in.\u201d In the original context <\/span>, I said that the Olympics were not the only sport to be caught up in a doping scandal. Baseball, football, soccer and especially cycling <\/span> were also caught up in their own scandals. To be caught up in something means to be involved <\/span> in something, especially if that something takes up a lot of your attention. It\u2019s usually, but not always, something bad. Let\u2019s take one good example and one bad example.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say I\u2019m reading a great book right now\u2014which is something that\u2019s usually true, at least for me. And let\u2019s say I was reading late into the night <\/span> and forgot to meet friends for dinner, as I had planned. I might call them to apologize <\/span> and say, I was so caught up in my book, I lost track of time <\/span>. Had I not been caught up in my book, I would definitely have remembered our plans.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a good, or neutral, example. You can be caught up in a movie or a book; you can even be caught up in a conversation\u2014anything that takes a lot of your attention and distracts <\/span> you from other things. Here\u2019s an example where it\u2019s more negative, where something bad takes your attention away from something good. The whole government of Brazil is currently caught up in a massive bribery <\/span> scandal. It\u2019s taking up almost all the government\u2019s energy and the public\u2019s attention. For a long time, cycling was caught up in a scandal that featured cheating by so many of the world\u2019s top cyclists.<\/p>\n Actually, I just remembered <\/span> one other \u201cbad\u201d use of caught up in. If you say someone is caught up in himself, it means that person thinks so much about himself that he can\u2019t think about anything else or anyone else. It\u2019s definitely not a compliment <\/span> to say that someone is too caught up in himself <\/span> or herself <\/span>. By the way <\/span>, just a quick warning <\/span>: I\u2019ve been talking about the meaning of \u201ccaught up in\u201d, but to be caught up on something is an entirely different phrasal verb with an entirely different meaning; maybe we\u2019ll cover that one in a future episode.<\/p>\n That brings us to the end of this week\u2019s episode of Plain English. I\u2019d love to know what you think of the show so far, so I\u2019ve posted a listener survey on the web site, PlainEnglish.com, which you can take in either English or Spanish. And I\u2019d love to get connected on either Twitter or Facebook. The show\u2019s name on both of those platforms is PlainEnglishPod.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to these early episodes of Plain English. We\u2019ll be back next Thursday with another one. See you then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To “crack down” is to enforce a rule strictly; if you’re “caught up”, you’re up to date<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"terminology_category":[139],"lesson_number":[202],"keywords":[1016,1251,1250,86],"content_tag":[],"level":[],"class_list":["post-8986","expressions","type-expressions","status-publish","hentry","terminology_category-expression","lesson_number-202","keywords-catch","keywords-caught","keywords-crack","keywords-down"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCaught up in<\/h3>\n
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