"On your mettle" nghĩa là gì?

"On your mettle" có "mettle" là nhiệt tình, nhuệ khí = đầy nhuệ khí -> cụm từ này nghĩa là sẵn sàng làm việc hết mình, vì bạn biết mình đang được kiểm tra hoặc thử thách.

Ví dụ

The problem with this league is that the quality is not as high, but you just have to be on your mettle all the time.

“You had to be on your mettle, you had to bring something to the table (mang lại lợi ích). And you had to be funny. Wherever he went, he always upped the ante (đặt tiêu chuẩn cao).” Christa D’Souza remembers her dear friend, the journalist Adrian Gill.

He is old school (người truyền thống) in the best possible sense of the word — does his research, asks a question, waits for the answer, asks another one. If he spots a weakness, he goes for it; if he doesn’t, he moves on. You have to be on your mettle. But you know he will give you the time to make a point. Tough but fair. Often devil’s advocate, never shock jock.

The impression given is that it’s the most interesting job you could have, but simultaneously (đồng thời) the worst. Interesting because you’re on your mettle day and night, observing and analyzing, alert for the tiniest details and behavioral nuances (sắc thái). The worst because you have no life outside your work and the penalties for even one tiny slip range from amputation (chặt bỏ) to incarceration (tống giam), torture, rape, beheading and (if your captors (người bắt giam) are not Isis, but Russian) a bullet in the head.