go off the rails: meaning and explanation
to go off the rails = to begin behaving in an unacceptable or outrageous way.
We tend to use this expression to say that someone’s life has started to go in the wrong direction (in a sudden and dramatic way).
Imagine a gifted student – his life was “going in the right direction” until he broke up with his girlfriend, and then everything started to go wrong. If he went off the rails, maybe he stopped studying, started partying every night, drank too much, stopped taking care of himself and so on.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: Northern England
About the sentence
…and ended up dropping out…
When someone quits university, school or a course, we can also use the phrasal verb to drop out of something.
Dictation #2
Accent: North America
About the sentence
…he was a very promising student…
If someone or something is promising, then it has the potential to be successful or positive. e.g. We’ll need to continue testing, but the early results from the clinical trials are promising.
…he broke up with his girlfriend…
You can practise the phrasal verb to break up with someone here.
Dictation #3
Accent: Scotland
About the sentence
…child prodigies…
A prodigy is someone who is exceptionally talented in a certain area, e.g. a maths prodigy, a chess prodigy, a tennis prodigy, etc. This talent usually appears when the person is young, when they may be referred to as a child prodigy.
Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- Have you ever gone off the rails, or do you know anyone who has? What caused it and what happened? How did you get your life back on track?
- Is it normal for teenagers to go off the rails at some point?
I know one guy who was a professional sportsman. But then – friends, parties.. and he went off the rails. Now he takes drugs and live not a good life.
P.S. What does the phrasal verb “to drop out of something” means?
Perfect example, well done Tanya.
One correction: it would sound more natural if you said: “Now he takes drugs and doesn’t live a good life”.
To drop out of something = to leave a course, school, university etc without finishing your studies. There is an exercise for this phrasal verb here: http://microenglish.com/phrasal-verbs/drop-out/