Reader's question:  

I believe we can just work it together, split everything right down the middle.

Could you explain "right down the middle"?

My comments:

If you split something with someone, you share it with them. You share, say, an apple with a friend by cutting the apple in the middle, thus splitting the apple into two halves. And if you're really nifty with the job, you may split the apple right down the middle and exactly cut it by half.

Hence, by extension, if you split a business venture with someone, you work with them by sharing the profit. By saying that you want to "split everything right down the middle", you're willing to get half of the profits and let your partner get the other half.

In other words, you want to split the profits by 50-50 – "right down the middle".

Related stories:

Take my word for it

40-sometimes

Last but not the least

Call it a dog

Pull my leg

Ego bath

Tough call

Rain check

Upper reaches

Off the shoulders

Off and running

Gold dust

Frugality fatigue

Red flag

Foregone conclusion

Call balls and strikes

Stare in the face

Cyber Monday

With a grain of salt

Drive home

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

With bells on

No harm, no foul

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。

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.