99e热国产最新地址获取,成人一a毛片免费视频,一级a爱看片免费观看,最近最新中文字幕大全免费一

 
 
 

No coat tails to ride on?

中國日報網 2013-02-01 10:54

分享到

 

No coat tails to ride on?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence: This time they have no coat tails to ride on.

My comments:

It means that this time, they’ll have to do all the work by themselves and, without help, it won’t be as easy.

It won’t be as easy as before, when he had someone’s coat tails to ride on.

Coat tails?

Coat tails refer to the tails or flaps of a tailcoat or greatcoat. Babies are sometimes seen hanging on to parents’ coat tails for a joyful ride. That’s the origin of this phrase, which Dictionary.com says dates back to 1590–1600, i.e. a long time ago.

We infer that if you ride on someone’s coat tails, or coattails, you’re making life easy for yourself. You’re relying on other people’s help and support. And those who have big enough coattails for you to ride on must be someone bigger, stronger, more powerful or more famous.

It’s like hitchhiking. You don’t have a lot of money to spend but you want to travel the country. So you try to take a free ride whenever you can. And if all drivers are willing to give you a free ride whenever you ask for one, your life will be made easy as you tour the country. The free rides are kind of like coattails for you to ride on. Without them your travels will become travails, i.e. they’ll be much more difficult.

Let me give you another example. If you follow American basketball, you’ll understand that whenever Kobe Bryant and his fans brag about the five championship rings he won for the Los Angeles Lakers, others promptly point out that it was rather Shaquille O’Neal who won the first three rings for him in 2000-02. Shaq was the more dominant player of the league then and he was the primary reason that the Lakers won. If you care to check the facts further, you’ll see, for example, Shaq was named Finals MVP (Most Valuable Player) all three times back then.

Shaq is big and his coattails are enormous. At least they once were in his heyday.

Problem is, Kobe is so consumed with his own greatness that he never wants to share the glory with teammates. Currently, as we speak, Kobe has three other future Hall of Famers as teammates, in Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash. Those are great coattails to ride on, too. Yet, all you hear Kobe talking is how this is “my team”.

That sort of stuff won’t sit well with any teammates, be they Hall of Famer players or merely average. Sure enough, with that type of mentality, the team suffers in terms of chemistry (cohesion) – and productivity. Today, the Lakers have a win-loss record of 20-26, the worst in recent memory.

Anyways, you’ve learned the phrase riding on someone’s coattails. That’s something that makes your life easy. So, you’d better learn to appreciate it while it lasts.

Here are media examples:

1. Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president on Tuesday, Nov. 4, a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states – Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

A huge crowd in Grant Park in Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of Obama's victory. Some in the crowd wept, including Jesse Jackson, who could be seen with tears streaming down his face...

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

As the 44th president, Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.

The popular vote was close, but not the count in the Electoral College, where it mattered most.

There, Obama’s audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn’t gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.

Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

Fellow Democrats rode his coattails to larger majorities in both houses of Congress. They defeated incumbent Republicans and won open seats by turn.

- Obama triumphs, will be first black US president, Associated Press, November 5, 2008.

2. The last time this happened in this sector was 14 years ago, in 1997.

Back then, Warren Buffett had investments in this sector during the phenomenon (and made millions from it). Meanwhile, investors watched the prevailing prices in the sector soar from $4.25 an ounce to above $7.00.

That’s not surprising. You see, when this phenomenon rears its head, it usually means one thing: demand is soaring. And we all know soaring demand means rising prices.

That’s exactly what we're seeing in the silver market right now.

To be sure, demand for American Eagle silver bullion coins — perhaps the easiest way to buy the metal — has reached unprecedented levels. More than 6.4 million coins were sold in January. And there has been extremely unusual activity in the trading pits in recent weeks. Specifically, spot prices for immediate delivery have surpassed those for future delivery. Usually, futures prices are higher because of storage costs and other factors.

The rare flip-flop (known as backwardation) means traders are willing to pay a premium to get their hands on silver today rather than a few months from now. This highly unusual situation hints at physical supply shortage fears and could be a precursor of even bigger gains.

In 1997-98, silver rose more than 65% in a matter of eight months on the heels of backwardation. Back then, demand was spurred by a substantial investment from Warren Buffett.

He and Berkshire Hathaway acquired a huge position in silver of 130 million ounces. Millions of other investors rode his coattails into the silver market, creating even more demand for the metal.

- Warren Buffett Made Millions From This Phenomenon in 1997... And It’s Happening Again, MarketDailyNews.com, March 8, 2011.

3. Bieber knocks off a Kardashian. Justin Bieber was the most-searched person on the Internet in 2011, according to the search engine Bing. Kim Kardashian held that title last year. Not even her made-for-Hollywood wedding over the summer, and the subsequent 72-day marriage, helped her hold onto that title.

Paternity suit apparently trumps celebrity divorce.

Justin, who ranked No. 6 last year, is the only guy in the Top 10, which includes: Kim Kardashian (No. 2), Jennifer Aniston, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Megan Fox, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.

Selena Gomez, Justin's girlfriend, rode his coattails up the list from No. 50 last year to No. 11 this year. Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Barack Obama and Kate Gosselin all fell out of the Top 10.

- Justin Bieber Knocks Off Kim Kardashian on Internet in 2011, Hispania-News.com, December 2, 2011.

 

本文僅代表作者本人觀點,與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題,尊重他人,禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

我要看更多專欄文章

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 

相關閱讀:

No stage fright?

Game face?

Child in a candy store?

Blame the brass?

Tall task

(作者張欣 中國日報網英語點津 編輯:陳丹妮)

 

分享到

中國日報網英語點津版權說明:凡注明來源為“中國日報網英語點津:XXX(署名)”的原創作品,除與中國日報網簽署英語點津內容授權協議的網站外,其他任何網站或單位未經允許不得非法盜鏈、轉載和使用,違者必究。如需使用,請與010-84883561聯系;凡本網注明“來源:XXX(非英語點津)”的作品,均轉載自其它媒體,目的在于傳播更多信息,其他媒體如需轉載,請與稿件來源方聯系,如產生任何問題與本網無關;本網所發布的歌曲、電影片段,版權歸原作者所有,僅供學習與研究,如果侵權,請提供版權證明,以便盡快刪除。

中國日報網雙語新聞

掃描左側二維碼

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我們這兒都有!

中國日報雙語手機報

點擊左側圖標查看訂閱方式

中國首份雙語手機報
學英語看資訊一個都不能少!

關注和訂閱

本文相關閱讀
人氣排行
搜熱詞
 
 
精華欄目
 

閱讀

詞匯

視聽

翻譯

口語

合作

 

關于我們 | 聯系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版權聲明:本網站所刊登的中國日報網英語點津內容,版權屬中國日報網所有,未經協議授權,禁止下載使用。 歡迎愿意與本網站合作的單位或個人與我們聯系。

電話:8610-84883645

傳真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn