'Kicking Off' a New Year

01And now, words and their stories from VOA Learning English.

02One of the most popular sports in the United States is American football.

03In the U.S., football is a sport that involves a lot of contact.

04What people around the world call football, Americans call soccer.

05For today's show, we talk about some idioms and expressions that come from American football.

06The American sport mainly involves carrying or throwing the ball.

07But there are times when a player must use their feet to kick the ball.

08The kicker can kick field goals to get points.

09In addition to that, the game starts with a kickoff.

10And after scoring points, a team will kick off to the other side, beginning their turn on offense.

11The term kickoff is commonly used to describe the start of an event or project.

12For example, we could say, You can use it as a phrasal verb as well.

13For example, people often like to kick off the new year with a resolution or promise to yourself to reach a goal or to do something.

14Football also has the term punt.

15Punting is another sort of kick a team uses when they cannot score.

16The punter kicks a ball with the top of his foot.

17Punt, like kick, can be both a noun and a verb.

18When you punt the ball, you put it in play for the other team.

19The same can be said for punting in life.

20When we punt something, we give our task, job, or responsibility to someone else.

21For example, if I'm not good at a certain task, or I just don't want to do it, I can punt it to someone else.

22It can also mean to delay a decision.

23If I'm not sure about taking a trip, for example, I can punt the decision until later.

24Another way to say this in American English is to table it.

25If you are not ready to think about something, it can or must wait until later.

26In football, the kicker not only starts the game with a kickoff, but also kicks field goals.

27To do this, the kicker must kick the football between the goal posts at either end of the football field.

28If he succeeds, his team gets three points.

29Kicking a field goal can be difficult if the kicker is far from the goal posts, or if the weather in an outdoor stadium is windy, rainy, or snowy.

30But imagine if the goal posts were moving.

31That would make kicking the ball between them much more difficult.

32We can face this problem in everyday life.

33Imagine if you are given a task at work with specific goals to reach.

34For example, if you are a social media manager, you could be asked to increase followers by 10,000 by the end of the month.

35But when the end of the month comes, your boss tells you that now you need to add 20,000 followers, not 10,000.

36In this case, your boss has moved the goal post.

37Sometimes a person moves the goal posts on purpose.

38They have a reason for doing so.

39If the goal posts keep moving, it is difficult or even impossible to reach the goal.

40So if you say that someone has moved the goal posts, you are accusing them of changing the rules or end goals to make it difficult for you to succeed.

41We can also say to move the target to mean the same thing.

42A moving target is a changing goal or result.

43A desired goal, end, or objective that changes all the time is difficult or perhaps even impossible to reach.

44Both expressions, to move the goal posts and to move the target, can be used in the same way and in similar situations.

45However, moving the goal posts is a classic football expression.

46While moving the target can refer to several sports.

47And that's words and their stories.

48Until next time, I'm Ana Mateo.

49Thank you.

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54Thank you.