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English Phrase: Pull (something) out of a hat/thin air
You’ve seen magicians do it in cartoons.
They reach in and pull a rabbit out of a hat, or perhaps your uncle has reached behind your ear and pulled a coin out of thin air.
I can’t tell you how they do it because it’s magic, and if I told you the secret, it wouldn’t be magic anymore.
I’m not going to be the one to destroy your childhood memories.
In the adult world, though, doesn’t it seem as if some people pull something out of thin air all the time?
I knew guys in university who never seemed to study and were rarely in class, yet come exam time, they were able to walk into the finals unprepared yet walk out with As and Bs.
They were able to pull the answers out of thin air.
How about government policy?
Doesn’t it seem to you that some new plans are not well thought out?
It’s like they pull ideas out of the air and throw them at the wall until they find one that sticks.
Then they take that idea and run with it until it runs out of steam.
Japan touts its nuclear power dependence as environmentally friendly while promoting coal-fired plants in India and Vietnam.
They pull ideas out of a hat and never give them a second thought.
By the way, I should tell you that pulling something out of a hat or thin air means something is done totally at random.
Some of us have to work hard for new ideas, whereas others pull them out of thin air.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.