The Eleventh Hour

康鹤彪

同学们，在英语学习中，我们会遇到一些习惯用语，靠字面翻译是解释不通的，这就要求我们多多积累，深入了解西方文化。今天给大家介绍的是习惯用语the eleventh hour。我们先来看下面一段对话。

Alan： I finished the work at the eleventh hour.

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

你能看出来这个对话有什么问题吗？如果没发现问题，请接着看下面的英语短文。

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“关键时刻，最后关头”，那么开头部分的对话大家就知道是闹了个笑话。Alan想说在最后时刻完成了工作，而Barry却以为Alan整整工作了11个小时。

除此之外，英语中还有很多其他数字俚语，你都知道它们的意思吗？

five-and-ten：廉价商品;杂货店

at sixes and sevens：乱七八糟

in seventh heaven：十分高兴

ten to one：很有可能，十有八九

（作者单位：江苏省泰州市姜堰区第四中学）