Reader question:

What does it mean exactly when the teacher says that “your question is a tough cookie”?

My comments:

You’ve asked your teacher a difficult question, that’s all.

You’ve asked a question the teacher doesn’t seem to have a ready answer for.

Your question is, in other words, a tough nut to crack.

That’s about it.

“Tough cookie” is an American expression that is mostly used to describe a person, though. When they say so-and-so is a tough cookie, they mean to say he or she is a strong and determined person.

Like a tough nut to crack, people who are tough cookies are difficult to sway and persuade. You cannot change their mind and alter their attitude.

Not easily, at any rate.

Literally, a tough cookie may just be one that’s dried up after being exposed to the air – as cookies are wont to do in wintertime here in Beijing. Unlike the soft delicacies they are when freshly taken out of the oven, dried cookies are hardened up and therefore tough to chew.

Like a tough nut, it takes work plus time and patience if you really want to eat it.

But you do want to eat it, I suppose, cookies being cookies.

So, take it as a compliment that your teacher considers your question a “tough cookie”. The teacher may not have a ready answer for it, but he (or she) does want to answer it – in some way and after some time. Perhaps the teacher will come up with a good answer after having worked on it awhile.

In short, tough cookies are tough and strong and as such can be difficult to deal with, for better or worse.

All right, let’s read a few media examples to examine “tough cookie” in different contexts:

1. Scarlett Johansson is “one tough cookie” who “acts like a man” in her total disregard of her looks, according to the director of her latest thriller.

Luc Besson, 55, the man behind The Fifth Element, Subway and Léon: The Professional, also hailed the actress’s quick intelligence and said it made her ideal for the part of Lucy, a student who finds her brain power unlocked to a superhuman degree by a powerful chemical.

He said: “Scarlett loved the subject right away. She had hundreds of questions. And she wanted the challenge. She is a tough cookie and a hard worker.” He also said she does not deliberately “seduce” the camera, explaining: “She is incredibly photogenic. You can honestly do whatever you want with the camera and she is totally gorgeous.

“But what is amazing about her is she absolutely never plays with that. Scarlett doesn’t care. It’s about the part. She is very sweet. She is almost acting like a totally tough man. The beauty just comes by itself. I can see it through the lens and I can use it but she doesn’t play with it at all.”

- Scarlett Johansson is a tough cookie who doesn’t trade on her beauty, says Léon director Luc Besson, Standard.co.uk, August 11, 2014.

2. Sarah Palin canceled a campaign event with Donald Trump in Florida Monday after her husband was seriously hurt in a snow machine crash.

Todd Palin is reportedly in intensive care. Sarah Palin reported on her Facebook page around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday he is receiving care at an Alaskan hospital and his injuries include multiple broken and fractured ribs, broken shoulder blade, broken clavicle, knee/leg injuries and a collapsed lung.

At the time of the post, Todd was in surgery to repair multiple fractures in his back.

“Knowing Todd, once he’s cognizant, he’ll probably ask docs to duct tape him up and he’ll call it good,” Sarah Palin wrote. “He’s tough.”

The Trump campaign said Monday Palin was returning to Alaska to be with her husband and she looks forward to being back on the campaign trail soon. A statement said Trump sends his thoughts and prayers to Palin and her family.

Palin’s cancellation comes two days after Trump scrapped a rally in Chicago due to protests. The number of protesters at Trump’s rallies has grown over the past couple of weeks.

Palin endorsed trump in January.

…

Trump said after taking the stage that Todd Palin is a “tough cookie,” but says, if you’re “too tough, you break ribs every once in a while.”

- Sarah Palin provides update after husband seriously injured in snow machine crash, NBC News, March 15, 2016.

3. New Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade acknowledged his strained relationship with Pat Riley on Saturday, three days after ending his 13-year stint with the Miami Heat.

“It’s going to be a lot of stuff said about me and Pat. First of all, I love Pat. He has a job to do. He has a different hat to wear,” Wade told reporters at his youth basketball camp in downtown Miami. “That hat sometimes is not to be my best friend. That hat is to be the president of the organization and to be a businessman, and that sucks.

“You love each other, but the business side comes out, and you have to deal with it.”

Wade said he understood the difficult position Riley is sometimes placed in as the team’s president.

“I’m not saying we’ve hugged and cried and shared tears at this moment,” Wade said, “but I love Pat and will always love Pat. And I know he feels the say way about me.”

…

“He’s a tough cookie,” Wade said of Riley. “I’ve grown into being a tough one as well. Yeah, we can butt heads at times. I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for what he’s been able to do in this game of basketball. I’ve only got 13 years under my belt. He’s got 13 years times 10 under his belt.”

- Wade: Pat Riley’s job not to be my best friend, FreeWinningPicks.com, July 9, 2016.

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 is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He 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.

（作者：張欣 編輯：丹妮）