Reader question:

Please explain “the way they carry on” in this: You think they’d never been fed the way they carry on.

My comments:

The way they carry on?

The way they eat, that is.

What’s implied here is that the way they eat is annoying. What’s implied is, say, they eat too much, they eat too greedily and they make too much unnecessary noise while they eat.

In other words, the way they gorge themselves is quite out of ordinary and that type of noisy and out-of-control behavior goes beyond the pale of proper conduct in public.

How we carry ourselves is how we behave in general. And we use “carry on” to describe how we continue doing something. For example, doctors carried on work during the Covid crisis.

Equally, people carry on their improper behavior, non-stop, to draw attention and inspire ill feeling.

In other words, this has been going on for some considerable time. They keep doing it.

In our example, the way they gorge on food, greedily and noisily, makes you wonder whether they’ve never had a good meal before.

If they had always been starving, of course, their behavior would have been more understandable. But they are well fed as everybody else is, which is what makes their rambunctious behavior so out of proportion and irritating.

Anyways, “carry on” is best understood in context and here are a few examples:

1. A former top employee of Donald Trump has delivered a stinging verdict on her ex-boss’ run for the U.S. presidency, calling him a “bully” and a “hooligan.”

Speaking on BBC Radio's Today programme Barbara Res – who headed up the building of Trump Tower in New York as the businessman's Vice President – said that both the policies and the personality of her former boss made him unfit to be President of the United States.

“His policies I think are abhorrent,” she said, referring to plans to temporarily block Muslims from entering the country and Trump's opposition to Obama’s expansion of affordable healthcare.

But besides that, Res said, “I don't think he has the temperament to be president. I think he’s very impatient. I don’t think that he takes advice from people.

“I certainly don’t think Donald with the way he carries on and he’s kicking ‘A’ and he’s beating the ‘S’ out of people… no that’s not presidential. That’s a hooligan. That’s a bully from the neighbourhood, and that’s not who you want to be president of the United States.”

Res did concede, though, that Trump was “the best salesman I have ever seen in my life,” adding that “he could sell ice to the Eskimos in their coldest winter.”

- Former Top Trump Employee Says Ex-Boss Not Fit For Presidency, NewsWeek.com, March 14, 2016.

2. The narrative of victimhood that seems entrenched in the psyche of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is hopelessly out of touch.

Both are enormously wealthy, healthy and educated and with good life prospects ahead of them, but the constant complaints of Harry and Meghan betray a lack of connection to reality.

Almost any other people on the planet would be able to make a good life in their situation. That is not to deny that life has dealt them some ups and downs, or that there have been obstacles to overcome. That is part of the human experience. But the way they carry on, you’d think they were destitute and persecuted with no way out.

The Sussexes claim to need privacy, but can’t seem to resist the urge to share their stories of woe repeatedly and to the highest bidders.

They don’t want the responsibilities and scrutiny that come with royal life, but still expected to be paid as though they were doing those duties diligently.

Harry says Meghan needs “special protection” because of her race. Despite repeated generalised complaints that she has been treated unfairly by the royal family on the basis of her race, we are yet to hear any detail of any incident that would justify that suggestion.

Those serious accusations sit uncomfortably with the public perception that the monarchy of recent times, and at least throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, led the Commonwealth with a genuine respect for the value of people from all of its corners, and with all of their differences. In many ways, it fostered international friendship and co-operation in a more genuine and effective way than more attention-seeking bodies like the United Nations.

- Sussexes’ victimhood disconnected from reality, AFR.com, December 14, 2022.

3. Taylor Swift is caught in the middle of a bitter feud between her two best friends, Blake Lively and Selena Gomez, and she may be forced to give one of them the boot, sources exclusively tell Life & Style.

Lively, 36, and Gomez, 31, refuse to be in the same room together and skip events to avoid running into each other which frustrates Swift, 34, to no end, add our sources.

“Taylor’s tried many times to broker peace between these two divas, but they won’t play nice,” says an insider. “She thinks it’s silly the way they carry on, especially since the two don’t even know where all this hating began!”

Swift has been best friends with singer-actress Gomez since 2008. She started hanging out with the Gossip Girl star in 2015. But now, the “Anti-Hero” singer apparently can’t get the two in the same room together.

“Taylor feels like she’s doing a juggling act in a circus to keep them both happy, but her patience is wearing thin,” says the insider.

According to Life & Style sources, Swift prefers Lively’s company when she’s ready to party and kick up her heels, while Gomez is more Swift’s confidante when it comes to talking about more serious things.

- Taylor Swift’s BFFs Blake Lively and Selena Gomez ‘Won’t Play Nice’ as Singer Tries to ‘Broker Peace’, LifeAndStyleMag.com, April 9, 2024.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He 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.

（作者：張欣   編輯：丹妮）