我们讲的英语第148期:Two Ticks 一会儿

William: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, I'm William Kremer.
威廉：大家好，欢迎收听地道英语节目，我是威廉·克莱默。

Wang Fei: And I'm Wang Fei. So how are you today?
王飞：我是王飞。你今天怎么样？

William: Two ticks...
威廉：稍等一下……

Wang Fei: What?
王飞：什么？

William: Give me two shakes, Wang Fei, I just need to...
威廉：王飞，给我点儿时间，我只是要……

Wang Fei: Eh? What's that?
王飞：什么？那是什么？

William: I'll be with you in a jiffy...
威廉：我马上就和你一起主持……

Wang Fei: In a jiffy. What's a jiffy? William, what are you talking about?
王飞：In a jiffy。jiffy是什么？威廉，你在说什么？

William: There, done now. I just needed to send a text.
威廉：好了，搞定了。我只是要发个短信。

Wang Fei: But what were all those ticks and jiffys?
王飞：不过刚才你说的那ticks和jiffys都是什么啊？

William: Ahh, and shakes?
威廉：还有shakes是吗？

Wang Fei: Yes.
王飞：对。

William: Well they're all expressions of time, Wang Fei. So they're ways of saying 'just a moment', or 'just a minute'.
威廉：嗯，这些都是有关时间的表达方式，王飞。这些都是“稍等一下”、“马上”的表达方式。

Wang Fei: I see.
王飞：我明白了。

Can you come and help me lift this sofa?
你能来帮我搬下这个沙发吗？

Yeah, I'll be with you in two ticks.
好的，我马上就过去帮你。

William: Two ticks. In English, we say clocks make this noise: tick tock, tick tock. So two ticks is just like saying two seconds.
威廉：two ticks。在英语中，我们说钟表会发出这样的声音：滴答，滴答。所以two ticks就相当于两秒钟。

I said, can you come and help me here? It's too heavy for me.
我说，你能不能过来帮帮我？这个沙发对我来说太重了。

Yes, yes. I'll be there in two shakes.
好，好的。我马上就来帮你。

Wang Fei: Hmm. Two shakes?
王飞：嗯。Two shakes？

William: Yeah, the full phrase here is 'two shakes of a lamb's tail', but we shorten this to 'two shakes'.
威廉：对，完整的短语是“小羊摇两下尾巴的时间”，不过我们会缩短成two shakes。

Wang Fei: Oh I see. Two shakes of a lamb's tail. English can be a very weird language!
王飞：哦，我明白了。“小羊摇两下尾巴的时间”。英语还真是奇怪的语言！

William: Yes, it can be! I guess that this is because lambs' tails shake very fast, so two shakes is a short time! And finally...
威廉：对，是这样！我想这是因为小羊的尾巴摇的非常快，所以摇两下只用很短的时间！最后……

Look Neil, this sofa isn't going to lift itself. Get a move on!
看，尼尔，沙发是不会自己长腿走的。快点过来！

I know, I know. I said I'll be with you in a jiffy.
我知道，我知道。我说过我马上就会去帮你的。

Wang Fei: In a jiffy. So in a jiffy also means 'in a short space of time'. But what's a jiffy?
王飞：In a jiffy，这也是“短时间”的意思。不过jiffy是什么？

William: Well, you know what, Wang Fei? Nobody is completely sure of the origin of this word. But it has been in use for over 200 years!
威廉：嗯，王飞，你知道吗？没人准确地知道这个词的来源。不过这个词已经用了200多年了！

Wang Fei: 200 years! That's quite a long time. More than a jiffy!
王飞：200年！那真是很长时间了。比短时间可长多了。

William: Yes, and that's several billion shakes of a lamb's tail.
威廉：对，那可是小羊摇了几十亿次尾巴的时间啊。

Wang Fei: Yes and all those ticks of a clock! Bye for now.
王飞：对啊，还有那些时钟的滴答声。现在该说再见了。

William: Bye bye.
威廉：再见。

Are you going to help me with sofa or not?!
你到底要不要帮我搬沙发？

What sofa? You need help with a sofa?
什么沙发？你需要帮忙搬沙发吗？