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Reader question: Please explain this sentence, particularly “crash diet”: How to enjoy duck without going on a crash diet straight afterwards. My comments: This seems like some kind of advice on how one can enjoy eating duck without having to worry about gaining weight. Duck apparently refers to Peking Duck, the roast duck, a local favorite here in Beijing. Anyways, the sentence intends to tell you how to enjoy Peking Duck, eating to your fill, that is, without having to go on a hunger strike immediately after – skipping the next meal, for example. That’s essentially what “going on a crash diet straight afterwards” means really. Crash dieting, you see, is a radical way of controlling your intake of food in order to lose weight in an extremely short period of time. Crash in “crash diet” is the same as crash in “crash course”. A crash course in English, for example. Many youngsters are going abroad for high school education. Yes, high school education rather than university and college as it was the case just a few years ago. Many of these children go on so-called crash courses during the summer holiday. In a crash course, a lot of classes are crammed together so that the students can get as much information as possible in a very short period of time (a month or two weeks). Crash, as in “car crash”, suggests it happens quickly. Crash-landing of the airplane, in fact, provides a more vivid picture. Normally, you see, the airplane glides gracefully in the sky, wings stretched out like an eagle in a smooth and controlled manner while dropping lower and lower in altitude – before gently touching floor. It keeps running on the runway for up to a kilometer before coming to a full halt. The whole process is smooth and easy. | 
