What's the meaning of Raging

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Basic

Standard: British and American accent

TEACHER’S CORNER, RAGING WORDS

ALL THE RAGE

Today our lives are fast and furious and one result is a new phenomenon called road rage: drivers become so angry that they attack other motorists because of a small offence, such as a rude gesture of a dangerous manoeuvre. There’s nothing new about rage, extreme and explosive anger. Our society is changing, however, and examples of road rage are now common. There’s also air rage, where people become violent on planes. Experts have discovered that drinking alcohol at high altitudes can cause anti-social behavior. In any case, people today are impatient and often feel trapped in situations out of their control. This cause check- out rage at the supermarket, computer rage (when a computer doesn’t function) and desk or office rage at work. In fact the world “rage” is all the Rage – that means it’s very popular –and newspapers invent a new version every day.

ELEPHANTS

Rage can also cause terrible events such as the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 199. This inspired Gus Van Sant’s 2003 film, Elephant, but why did he use that title? The term “The Elephant in the room” refers to a problem that  no one talks about, but everyone knows exists. Then we have pink elephants and white elephants. People see pink elephants when they are drunk.

A white elephant, on the other hand, is something that is both useless and expensive. This phrase comes from East Asia where people gave their enemies a white elephant in order to ruin them. 

English tips comment: Listen up, the expression All the rage here means What is in evidence and Rage is synonym of Anger.