The Eleventh Hour

康鶴彪

同學們，在英語學習中，我們會遇到一些習慣用語，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慣用語the eleventh hour。我們先來看下面一段對話。

Alan： I finished the work at the eleventh hour.

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

你能看出來這個對話有什么問題嗎？如果沒發現問題，請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 oclock in the morning to six oclock in the afternoon. Literally， those who come in to work at the eleventh hour arrive at 5 pm， which is pretty late， obviously. In the biblical story， some laborers came in at the eleventh hour but received a full days 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， its the very last minute before the deadline.

原來， the eleventh hour的意思是“關鍵時刻，最后關頭”，那么開頭部分的對話大家就知道是鬧了個笑話。Alan想說在最后時刻完成了工作，而Barry卻以為Alan整整工作了11個小時。

除此之外，英語中還有很多其他數字俚語，你都知道它們的意思嗎？

five-and-ten：廉價商品;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

（作者單位：江蘇省泰州市姜堰區第四中學）