Kicking the can down the road?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Kicking the can down the road?

Fret not, for this is just another example of how simple and straightforward an American idiom can be.

The “can” refers to any one of many emptied cans (of beer, for example) littering the road. Children after school are walking home. One boy finds such a can in front of him. What does he do?

No, he doesn’t pick it up and put it in the garbage bin on the sidewalk – as an adult, mature politician may do. Instead, the boy kicks it rolling down the road. Then he takes a few steps, catches up and gives it another kick, sending it further down the road.

Other kids soon begin to do the same.

That’s the idea of kicking the can down the road.

Kids kick the can down the road strictly for kicks and nobody blames any of them for not carrying the can to the dust bin in a timely fashion.

It’s one of the advantages of being a child, clearly. Kids may kick the can down the road any time without remorse and reproach, but not for adults, who are suppose to do their duty and not even have any fun doing it. They’re supposed to pick all the cans up and head straight to the dust bin.

At any rate, Americans must have seen some parallels between kids kicking the can down the road and their politicians talking all the time without getting anything actually done because “kicking the can down the road” is most commonly used in political circles.

And quite frankly, I think most politicians anywhere mostly deserve the criticism. For one thing, they do seem to kick the can down the road all the time, don’t they?