The Eleventh Hour

文／康鶴彪

同學(xué)們，在英語學(xué)習(xí)中，我們會(huì)遇到一些習(xí)慣用語，靠字面翻譯是解釋不通的，這就要求我們多多積累，深入了解西方文化。今天給大家介紹的是習(xí)慣用語the eleventh hour。我們先來看下面一段對(duì)話。

Alan：I finished the work at the eleventh hour.

Barry：You must be exhausted after the 11-hour work.

你能看出來這個(gè)對(duì)話有什么問題嗎？如果沒發(fā)現(xiàn)問題，請(qǐng)接著看下面的英語短文。

In olden times,people worked only during daytime from dawn to dusk,or roughly speaking during the twelve hours from six o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the afternoon.Literal?ly,those who come in to work at the eleventh hour arrive at 5 pm,which is pretty late,obvi?ously.In the biblical story,some laborers came in at the eleventh hour but received a full day’s pay,the same as those who came in at day break.

The eleventh hour is used to describe the final moments of a given event,or situation where change is still a possibility.

If you do something,usually involving a difficult decision to make,at the eleventh hour,it means that you do it at the last moment,when you absolutely have to.In other words,it’s the very last minute before the deadline.

原來，the eleventh hour 的意思是“關(guān)鍵時(shí)刻，最后關(guān)頭”，那么開頭部分的對(duì)話大家就知道是鬧了個(gè)笑話。Alan 想說在最后時(shí)刻完成了工作，而Barry 卻以為Alan 整整工作了11個(gè)小時(shí)。

除此之外，英語中還有很多其他數(shù)字俚語，你都知道它們的意思嗎？

five-and-ten：廉價(jià)商品；雜貨店

at sixes and sevens：亂七八糟

in seventh heaven：十分高興

ten to one：很有可能，十有八九