Reader's question: Thirty members of last year's list fell out of the billionaire's club. Moguls who couldn't make the cut: Iceland's Thor Bjorgolfsson, Russia's Boris Berezovsky...... Could you explain “to make the cut”? My comments: If you make the cut, you meet certain requirements. In the above example, Mr Bjorgolfsson and Mr Berezovsky failed to make the cut, meaning they’ll no longer be in the billionaire’s club. In other words, they’ll have to eke out a living next year as mere multi-millionaires. Poor things! “Make the cut” is originally a golf term. There are four rounds of play in a standard golf tournament. All players play the first two rounds but only a fixed number of players (with the best results from the first two rounds) are allowed to play in the third and fourth rounds. That means players who fail to achieve a certain score will be “cut” (eliminated). If you make the cut on the other hand, you advance. In other words, you stay alive and move on, hopefully to better things. The same wishes for Mrs Bjorgolfsson and Berezovsky, of course. Being thrown out of the billionaire’s club? Dear, oh dear! Related stories: 本文仅代表作者本人观点,与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题,尊重他人,禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。 About the author:Zhang Xin 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. |
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