"Where the rubber meets the road" nghĩa là gì?

"Where/when the rubber meets the road" = khi cao su gặp đường nhựa -> nghĩa là ý tưởng hoặc giả thuyết được đưa vào thử nghiệm. Cụm từ này bắt nguồn khi chế tạo xe ô tô, người ta sẽ lái thử trước khi đi đến sản xuất.

Ví dụ

What’s important, of course, is what BlackRock actually does with these assessments. This is where the rubber meets the road and where corporate board members are wondering if BlackRock really means it. In the last substantive (trọng yếu) section, headed “Holding Boards Accountable.”

The unemployment rate seems an obvious starting point for such a policy discussion. “That’s where the rubber meets the road for workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning (nghiêng về cánh tả) think tank (tổ chức nghiên cứu), and a former chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department.

The question is “how willing are the Chinese when the rubber meets the road”, said Mr Wuttke. “For them to take over part of the western system is unthinkable.” There are “rights violations shouting at you everywhere, but how much leverage do we have there?”