clean sweep: 彻底胜利

第7届亚洲乒乓球锦标赛昨天（8月28日）爆出特大冷门，世界冠军中国女队在女团半决赛中2-3不敌东道主韩国队，无缘决赛，遭到了自1990年亚锦赛以来最惨痛的失利。 请看报道：

Unseeded South Korea ruled out a clean sweep of China at the 17th Asian championships as they surprisingly rallied past the table tennis giants 3-2 in front of no more than a hundred local fans here on Sunday to reach the women's team final.

It will be the first time in 13 years for China to miss the women's team final at the biyearly Asian tournament, but hopes kept alive for Chinese to lift the trophy as Hong Kong of China made a final berth with 3-0 win over Japan in the other semi-finalclash.

句中的"clean sweep"意思是"彻底胜利"。此处的"clean" means complete。如：The USA made a clean sweep of (= won) all the men's events.（美国队包揽了所有男子项目的冠军。）又如：The new prime minister is expected to make a clean sweep of the government (= change all the members of it). (人们期望新首相对政府进行彻底改组。)