Crocodile tears
A student has been chosen ahead of you to be captain of the school basketball team. However, he breaks a leg and has to stand down. You are very sad and sympathetic about his situation in public, but you actually dance for joy. Those who shed crocodile tears pretend to be upset or affected by something.
This idiom, which comes from Latin, is very old. For some reason, ancient writers thought crocodiles could cry and used their tears to catch their prey.
In one version, a crocodile cries a lot. Someone feels sorry for the animal and comes to see what the problem is. He is then promptly eaten. In another, the ground is so wet with crocodile tears that people fall over when they try to escape from the animal. A third version says that after eating a man a crocodile sheds false tears of sadness over his death (or maybe it is sad that dinner is over).
Crocodiles do not actually shed any tears. Sometimes when a crocodile swallows, liquid is pushed out from its eyes, so it looks like the reptile is crying. Maybe this is where the legend comes from.
Davy Jones' locker
If you are a fan of the film, Pirates of the Caribbean, you will know a little about Davy Jones. He is a
