The College Letter During her short life, Maggie never thought she would have to make such a difficult decision. When she had imagined going to college, she had imagined going to Northwestern University like the rest of her siblings and extended family. However, that dream dissolved when she received her rejection letter. All the plans that she had made went up in smoke. Maggie sighed as she looked at the college letters before her; not being accepted was hard to swallow. Now, what should I do? I've never imagined going anywhere else, Maggie thought. Her mother had insisted that she apply to more than just one college. Staring at the letters, Maggie shuffled them in her hands, not wanting to open them. She didn't want to be different, and the fact that she had to go to a different college would make her different. She would stand out like a sore thumb. After 10 minutes, Maggie decided to open one letter as she thought, I'm sure it's another rejection letter anyways. I'm probably not good enough to be accepted anywhere. Her eyes brightened as she read the acceptance letter: "On behalf of the entire community, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for admission to our liberal arts program. Your writing samples highly impressed me and the rest of the department." Maybe she could cut the mustard after all. 1 Drag the tiles to the correct boxes to complete the pairs. Based on the context of the passage, match each idiom to its meaning. stand out like a sore thumb hard to swallow went up in smoke cut the mustard Meaning Idiom difficult to accept arrowBoth to be wasted arrowBoth to meet expectations arrowBoth to be noticeably different from others arrowBoth