A shift is like when you move a toy car from one spot on the floor to another. Imagine you have a toy car on your living room floor. If you push it from where it is now to a different place, you are making it ‘shift’. The car is still the same, but it has changed its position. Shifting is all about changing where something is without changing what it is.
Another way to think about a shift is like when you change the pages of a book. When you finish reading one page and turn to the next, you are shifting your attention from one page to another. The book is still the same book, but your focus has moved from one part of the story to another.
A shift can also be like when you rearrange your toys on a shelf. If you decide to put your teddy bear where your robot was, and your robot where the teddy bear was, you have shifted their places. They are still the same toys, but their spots on the shelf have changed. Shifting is about moving things around, so they are in different places than before.