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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 91
journeyman
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OP
journeyman
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 91 |
I came across one sentence I don't know how to translate well into Chinese. I have difficulty understanding and parsing it. It's:
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Because he knew how to sell, he could sell circles around people like me, even though he was working half the time or less.
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It's a sentence from the book "The Psychology of Selling". I don't quite understand "he could sell circles around people like me". How to parse the sentence? And is "circles" here an object or adverb?
Bow,
Calli.
Last edited by callithump; 08/24/06 12:50 AM.
Do inform me if you see any corrections needed in my written English. 
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
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addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
Imagine a race between a rabbit and a tortoise. The tortoise plods along in a straight line, but the rabbit is so fast, it can afford to taunt the tortoise by running in circles around it, covering far more ground, but still crossing the finish line first.
By extension, "to run circles around someone" or to "run rings around someone" is to outclass or outwit someone very easily.
The writer has just changed "run" to "sell", knowing that the reader will recognise the idiom and make sense of the expression. To "sell circles around people like me" means "to outsell me"; "to sell a great deal more than me without much effort".
Personally, I don't think it is a very good adaption of the expression, but others may disagree.
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