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Reader question: What does “life in the fast lane” mean, as in this sentence: Living life in the fast lane doesn’t mean you have to live solely on fast food. My comments: It means you’re leading a life at such a breathtaking – or breakneck – tempo that you often don’t have the time to even cook yourself a proper meal, making do instead with instant noodles, hamburgers and similar such. “Fast lane” refers to the innermost lane on the expressway, the lane in which you speed up your vehicle to overtake others. Fast lane, so-called because it is the fastest among several lanes in the same direction. Some drivers in Beijing, you must have observed, stay in the fast lane all the time. That’s illegal, by the way but that’s not of our concern here. Here we’re concerned with the fact that driving in the fast lane all the time might be dangerous, because the pace is so fast and driver so furious, or drunk, as the case may be, that accidents often ensue. Now imagine life in the fast lane all day, all week, all year round.... Anyways, “life in the fast lane” refers to the lifestyle of career people in the big city, especially successful people or at least ones who strive for success, whatever that is. These people have so much to accomplish professionally that they often do so at the expense of seemingly unimportant things, such as regular meals, sufficient sleep and time with families. | 
