美國習慣用語-第64講:to keep one's eye on the ball

eye-opener

人們把眼睛稱為“靈魂的窗戶”、“世界的窗戶”以及“心靈的窗戶”等等。怪不得eye這么一個只有三個字母組成的字出現在那末多的美國成語和俗語里。

今天我們先來講to keep one's eye on the ball。To keep one's eye on the ball這個常用語原先是來自球類運動,如網球、高爾夫球、壘球等。你一定要把眼睛看準了才能打到這些球。下面這個壘球運動員說的話就能說明問題：

例句-1: "We were playing Chicago there and the crowd was yelling and booing and waving handkerchiefs to distract us. But I kept my eye on the ball, swung as hard as I could and hit a home run. That Chicago crowd sure quieted down as I jogged around the bases."

這位壘球手說：“我們那時正在芝加哥和當地一個球隊比賽，看球的人群又喊又嚷，還揮動手絹想分散我們的注意力。可是，我集中精力，使出所有的勁兒來打球，結果打了一個本壘打。這下，當我沿著壘跑的時候，芝加哥的觀眾就變得很安靜了。”

可是現在to keep one's eye on the ball已經可以應用到一般的事物上了。讓我們來舉一個汽車推銷員的例子吧。這個人家里有些事不順心，使他在工作時很分散精力。于是，他的老板就把他叫到辦公室去對他說：

例句-2: "Tom, your sales record is way down the past six months. You've only sold 17 cars all this time. You'd better start keeping your eye on the ball, or you'll find yourself looking for another job."

這位老板說：“湯姆，你的銷售量在過去半年中一直很低。你在這段時間里一共才賣了十七輛汽車。你還是集中注意力地工作，不然，你恐怕得另找工作了。”

還有一個由eye這個字組成的、非常有用的習慣用語是eye-opener。Eye-opener是一個字。Eye-opener有兩個意思，一個是表示驚奇，就像下面這個女子所表達的情緒：

例句-3: "Of course, John and I have had a few problems, just like most married couples. But I always felt we had a good, solid marriage. So it was a terrible eye-opener when I opened the letter he'd left on the kitchen table and found out he'd run off with his old college sweetheart."

這個被拋棄的妻子說：“當然，約翰和我是有一些矛盾，就像大多數夫妻一樣。但是，我一直認為我們的婚姻是有牢固基礎的。所以，當我打開他留在廚房桌上的信，知道他和他以前大學里的女朋友出走了的時候，我真是非常驚奇。”

Eye-opener的另一意思是：開闊了眼界。請聽下面這個例子：

例句-4: "Seeing those color films the astronauts took off the earth on their flight to the moon was certainly an eye-opener. I never realized how beautiful and how lonely our planet looks hanging there in space."

這句話的意思是：“看到宇航員在登上月球時拍的那些有關地球的彩色照片真是開了眼界。我從來也不知道我們的地球在空間是這么美麗、這么孤單。”

以上我們講了兩個和eye這個字有關的習慣用語。它們是：to keep one's eye on the ball和 eye-opener。To keep one's eye on the ball是集中精力的意思。Eye-opener可以解釋為很驚奇，或開闊眼界。