If she hadn't gone to the mat for me, I wouldn't still be here.

要不是她挺身而出，替我說話，我今天早不在這兒了。不理解，請教點評

My comments:

Going to the mat is originally a sporting term, the mat being a large piece of thick, soft cushion on which players wrestle each other.

If someone is willing to go to the mat for you, it means they’re willing to muck in and fight on your behalf, risking being thrown to the mat.

In our example, “I” wouldn’t be in the good position “I” am in now if she hadn’t gone to the mat for me.

In other words, she gave me all the help she could and “I” could not have achieved anything without it.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

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.