一分鐘英語 第10期:Burn The Midnight Oil 挑燈夜戰
Welcome to English in a Minute.
歡迎收聽本期的《一分鐘英語》。
Sometimes, American English is confusing and hard to understand, like: burn the midnight oil.
有時候,美語有些糊里糊塗的,很費解,就比如:burn the midnight oil(挑燈夜戰)。Everybody knows Americans burn a lot of oil, but is there a special oil that they burn in the middle of the night?
大家都知道美國人要燒掉很多油,但是這裏是有一種專門在晚上燒的油麼?
I have big exam tomorrow.
我明天有場重要的考試。Are you prepared?
你準備了麼?No, not at all! I have to burn the midnight oil, I need to do well on this exam.
沒有,沒怎麼準備。我今天不得不挑燈夜戰(burn the midnight oil),我需要取得一個不錯的成績。Americans are not burning a special oil reserved for the middle of the night, they are just staying up very late.
美國人不是晚上才去燒什麼特別的油,他們只是要熬夜到很晚。This actually makes sense if you think of a candle, or a lantern, and you have a lot of work to do, that may take you all night.
如果你想想蠟燭、提燈,就能夠明白短語的意思了。有很多工作要做,這也許會花費整晚的時間。This is a phrase everybody will understand, and you can use this phrase when you have a lot of work to do, and not that much time to do it in.
這是一個眾人皆知的短語。當你有很多事情要做或者沒有太多時間做某事的時候,你就可以使用這個短語。And that's English in a Minute.
以上就是本期的《一分鐘英語》。