Reader's question:  I felt that they were probably going to sort of shove it under the carpet.

Could you explain “shove it under the carpet”?

My comments:

If you shove something, say, a cigarette butt, under the carpet, you hide it so that others don’t see.

When you think “they were probably going to sort of shove it under the carpet”, you believe they were not prepared to let it be known. Instead, they were going to hide it, whatever scandalous affair that may be, and keep quiet about it.

In the hope that nobody else will ever find out about it.

Back to the butt of cigarette. Obviously one cannot shove all cigarette butts under the carpet all the time. Sooner or later, you’re going to feel little bumps underfoot when you walk on the carpet and before you know, the room’s going to stink….

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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。

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.