请教几个英语短语和句子的解释

请教几个英语短语和句子的解释
1、a stary cat
2、to my distress
3、as a scratching post
4、I’ll have him trained in no time.
5、Tom is short （ ） Thomas。
A、in B、of C、for D、from
6、a few seconds
7、a hot potato
8、They are big shorts(对不起，我把shots打成shorts了）。
9、We are small potatoes。
10、The teacher thought little of the matter because he considered it a small potato。