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Reader question: Please explain “no slam dunk” in this sentence: Passing the exams and getting hired by the fire department is no slam dunk. My comments: Very difficult, that is. Not easy at all. Obviously there are a lot of difficult exams to take if you want to join the fire department and be a professional firefighter. Even if you pass all the exams it is still not easy, considering the competition. Say, 89 able-bodied and smart young men pass the exams but the fire department only has 12 openings to fill this year. So there. Only the cream of the top or the very best can pass the exams, the face-to-face interview and a touch on-the-job trial can eventually get recruited. All others, though able-bodies and capable, will have to wait another year. In other words, to go through the process and become a professional firefighter is no easy task. No mean feat. Certainly, no slam dunk. Slam dunk is originally hoop-speak (basketball language) for a type of dunk – dunking the ball by dropping the basketball through the hoop from above instead of under the rim or ring or rack or hoop or basket. Normally, players score points by shooting the basketball from under the rim, because the rim is 10 feet or 3.05 meters high in the air. Occasionally, however, people who are very tall (Yao Ming’s name comes uppermost to mind) or smaller players who are extremely explosive and can jump really high (Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter for example) are able to put their hand above the rim and dunk the ball, like dunking a piece of garbage into the garbage can. | 
