After 20 years of success, reform is a hard sell.
My comments:
Put in another way, after 20 years of success, it’s hard to sell reform – convince everyone how important it is to make changes.
“Sell” is usually known as a verb. Here, “sell” is a noun, that’s all (the problem there is).
Colloquial English sometimes gets foreigners confused and worked up, but often it’s much ado. This is why young students are encouraged to go abroad to study English, so that they just hear what native speakers have to say and follow suit without thinking too much, without questioning everything, without being bothered so much with grammar and all the rules in the textbook.
Anyways, a hard sell is just something that’s hard to sell.
Related stories:
Sold-out house
All bark and no bite
Leave money on the table
Boots on the ground
Jailbreak
Boots on the ground
Common thread
A fact of life
Leave no stone unturned
Train wreck
Keep up with Joneses
Finishing touch
No great shakes
Warts and all
Catch -22 situation
Pull-up trey
I'm sold
Flip-flop
Sit on its hands
Casing the joint
Free rein
Bear the brunt of
Cross one’s path
Tribute projects
Off the beaten track
At the forefront of
Seat warmer
The rule of the jungle
On-the-go
On the fence
Wild guess
In the high teens
Touch up
Unforced error
Catch a break
City slicker
Political correctness
Gee up
Big mind
Go to Zhang Xin's column
本文僅代表作者本人觀點(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。
About the author:
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.
中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津版權(quán)說(shuō)明：凡注明來(lái)源為“中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津：XXX（署名）”的原創(chuàng)作品，除與中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)簽署英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津內(nèi)容授權(quán)協(xié)議的網(wǎng)站外，其他任何網(wǎng)站或單位未經(jīng)允許不得非法盜鏈、轉(zhuǎn)載和使用，違者必究。如需使用，請(qǐng)與010-84883631聯(lián)系；凡本網(wǎng)注明“來(lái)源：XXX（非英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津）”的作品，均轉(zhuǎn)載自其它媒體，目的在于傳播更多信息，其他媒體如需轉(zhuǎn)載，請(qǐng)與稿件來(lái)源方聯(lián)系，如產(chǎn)生任何問(wèn)題與本網(wǎng)無(wú)關(guān)；本網(wǎng)所發(fā)布的歌曲、電影片段，版權(quán)歸原作者所有，僅供學(xué)習(xí)與研究，如果侵權(quán)，請(qǐng)?zhí)峁┌鏅?quán)證明，以便盡快刪除。
