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(gè)只有三個(gè)字母組成的字出現(xiàn)在那末多的美國(guó)成語(yǔ)和俗語(yǔ)里。

今天我們先來(lái)講to keep one's eye on the ball。To keep one's eye on the ball這個(gè)常用語(yǔ)原先是來(lái)自球類運(yùn)動(dòng),如網(wǎng)球、高爾夫球、壘球等。你一定要把眼睛看準(zhǔn)了才能打到這些球。下面這個(gè)壘球運(yùn)動(dòng)員說(shuō)的話就能說(shuō)明問(wèn)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(shuō)：“我們那時(shí)正在芝加哥和當(dāng)?shù)匾粋€(gè)球隊(duì)比賽，看球的人群又喊又嚷，還揮動(dòng)手絹想分散我們的注意力?？墒?，我集中精力，使出所有的勁兒來(lái)打球，結(jié)果打了一個(gè)本壘打。這下，當(dāng)我沿著壘跑的時(shí)候，芝加哥的觀眾就變得很安靜了。”

可是現(xiàn)在to keep one's eye on the ball已經(jīng)可以應(yīng)用到一般的事物上了。讓我們來(lái)舉一個(gè)汽車推銷員的例子吧。這個(gè)人家里有些事不順心，使他在工作時(shí)很分散精力。于是，他的老板就把他叫到辦公室去對(duì)他說(shuō)：

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(shuō)：“湯姆，你的銷售量在過(guò)去半年中一直很低。你在這段時(shí)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(gè)由eye這個(gè)字組成的、非常有用的習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)是eye-opener。Eye-opener是一個(gè)字。Eye-opener有兩個(gè)意思，一個(gè)是表示驚奇，就像下面這個(gè)女子所表達(dá)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(gè)被拋棄的妻子說(shuō)：“當(dāng)然，約翰和我是有一些矛盾，就像大多數(shù)夫妻一樣。但是，我一直認(rèn)為我們的婚姻是有牢固基礎(chǔ)的。所以，當(dāng)我打開(kāi)他留在廚房桌上的信，知道他和他以前大學(xué)里的女朋友出走了的時(shí)候，我真是非常驚奇?！?br />
Eye-opener的另一意思是：開(kāi)闊了眼界。請(qǐng)聽(tīng)下面這個(gè)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(shí)拍的那些有關(guān)地球的彩色照片真是開(kāi)了眼界。我從來(lái)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(gè)和eye這個(gè)字有關(guān)的習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)。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(kāi)闊眼界。