He never broke a sweat.

他從不生氣。

My comments:

He never broke a sweat?

他從不生氣？

Either he never worked hard or he was so good that he was able to do what others found difficult and time consuming easily and effortlessly.

The latter being the case always, hopefully.

To break a sweat, you see, is for one to start sweating. When one begins to warm, sweat breaks out of the pores, hence, perhaps, the expression.

Anyways, if you achieve something without breaking sweat, you do it without much trouble or effort.

It has nothing to do with being angry or peaceful.

Related stories:

Longevity has its place.

lose three stone是什么意思？

vintage mother

down the road

take sth in stride

Sour puss 酸貓？

in double time

out of the bottle

national god

give my right arm

sit sb down

hitch one's wagon to a star

fighting without fighting

on the back of

the buck stops there?

bargain for jobs

Build the case

Sound bites

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.