Down for the count?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Down for the count?

We’ve explained KO. Now, “down for the count” literally means a player is knocked “down” on the canvas, waiting “for the count” by the referee. While the count is being taken, the boxer’s status is “down but not out”, i.e. in great difficulty but not totally defeated, having a chance of recovering. After the count, if the player fails to stand up, he’s officially declared as “out”, i.e. out of contention for good. In other words, game over. His status now is, “down and out”, totally defeated, having no chance of recovery.

In short, “down for the count” means a great setback whereas “KO” means total defeat.

That’s why in our example what the speaker essentially means to say is that classic Hollywood movies are much better than their contemporary counterparts.

I agree. I think classic movies are beyond compare. This is largely a sign of the times, to be sure. Times change, and people are into different things. Simple as that.

There’s a deeper reason, too, I believe. And that is, you see, life of yesteryear was much simpler than it is now. That is why stars of yesteryear were better at what they did. They got to concentrate. Today, life is too diverse and complex. There are too many distractions for anyone to focus on the job on hand, or several jobs on hand considering many pop stars are multi-talented, able to act, sing, dance.

To be fair, each generation has its own stars and those stars are good in their own ways. But, if you are old enough, if you are old enough to experience the thrills stars from different generations give, you’ll be able to really separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. That is, you’ll be able to tell who are better, today’s stars or those of generations past.