Expert: Noa - 11/7/2005

Question
Hello,

I am not sure that i clearly understand the meaning of the following extract from a text book. Would you please tell me the meaning of "beating by a short head" ?

"Banana is the favourite smell of most people around the world. It beats peppermint, lemon and vanilla by a short head, according to a sixteen-country study."

Thank you.

Answer
It means the smell of banana is the favourite smell of the people surveyed in the study. However, it only beats the smell of vanilla by a small margin.

(In other words, the study showed that the smell of vanilla is second to the smell of banana, but only by a small margin.)

I hope this helps!