国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Reader's question: 

And to show that Pakistan has other options, Mr Gilani is to visit China, its "all-weather friend", on May 17th (see article).

Could you explain “all-weather friend”?

My comments:

This is a variation from the more commonplace phrase "fair-weather friend".

Fair weather is good weather, sunny and bright. A fair-weather friend suggests that you can count on his good friendship when things are going well, when, say, you're making loads of money and can invite him to wine and dine with you and generally have a good time. However, when you have trouble, say, run into debt, your friend disappears all of a sudden and is nowhere to be found. He's left the scene lest you should, say, borrow money from him.

An all-weather friend, on the other hand, is different. An all weather friend is instead one you can count on in all kinds of weather, i.e. in good weather and bad.

In other words, at all times.

Still in other words, he’d be there for you come rain or shine.

Related stories:

Lead the pack

Fish or cut bait

Gilt-edged

To do more with less

Right down the middle

Take my word for it

40-sometimes

Last but not the least

Call it a dog

Pull my leg

Ego bath

Tough call

Rain check

Upper reaches

Off the shoulders

Off and running

Gold dust

Frugality fatigue

Red flag

Foregone conclusion

Call balls and strikes

Stare in the face

Cyber Monday

With a grain of salt

Drive home

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

With bells on

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀(guān)點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場(chǎng)無(wú)關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問(wèn)題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國(guó)家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

Zhang Xin（張欣） 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.