student asking question

What does "come in second" mean? How can I use this phrase?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

To "come in second" means to be second place, or number two in ranking for some particular record or achievement. The speaker has used this expression to say that Japan is number two in the world for per-capita generation of single-use plastics (more simply, meaning that it is a top contributor to worldwide single-use plastic trash). You can also use similar expressions like, "[x] comes in first for [y]," "[x] comes in last place for [y]," and so on. Ex: Japan comes in first for public transportation in the world. Ex: Japan comes in second for single-use plastic consumption.

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