地道英语

Heavy lifting 一项任务中最困难的部分

内容简介

表达 “heavy lifting” 除了可以指 “搬运重物” 以外，还可以指 “工作中最主要的方面” 或 “任务中最困难的部分”。听本期地道英语节目，学习如何在日常生活和工作中使用 “heavy lifting”。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei 
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。在每期节目中，我们都会介绍一个英语母语人士或讲英语流利的人会用到的表达。I'm Feifei and I'm here with Neil.

Neil 
Hi there, Feifei.

Feifei
这期节目中我们要介绍的表达是 “heavy lifting”。首先，我和 Neil 将用英语来讲解这个表达的用法，在节目最后，我将会用汉语进行归纳总结。

Neil 
So, how are you, Feifei?  

Feifei 
I'm actually a little bit tired at the moment. Most of the team are either on holiday or off sick. So, I feel like I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Neil 
Ooh, that doesn't sound good. I hope you're OK. You said that you were doing a lot of 'heavy lifting' at work at the moment – and that's our expression. But you're not literally lifting heavy weights at work, are you? Your job doesn't require you to build up your physical fitness. 

Feifei 
No, no. I wasn't actually lifting weights. The phrase does have a literal meaning, and some jobs do require actual heavy lifting. For example, jobs in construction, if you're a builder, maybe, and sometimes as delivery drivers. But the way I used it just means that I'm doing most of the work at the moment.

Neil 
Well, I hope you're remembering to look after yourself, Feifei. That's important. So, you're not carrying a physical load, but maybe we can say you're 'carrying a mental load'.

Feifei 
That's right. 'Heavy lifting' can also mean you're doing the toughest or the most difficult part of the job. So, Neil, when was the last time you felt you were doing all the heavy lifting?

Neil 
So, my wife has a business and she's very, very busy at the moment. So, I'm doing the heavy lifting at home. So, I'm doing most of the cooking and cleaning and shopping and that kind of thing.

Feifei
Oh, I can imagine there must be so much to do. Well, here are some more examples of people using 'heavy lifting'.  

Examples 
I'm organising my wedding, but my fiancé isn't being very helpful. I'm doing all the heavy lifting.

My oven is broken, so my microwave is having to do all the heavy lifting at the moment.

My dad is quite ill, but my sister lives far away. So, I'm doing the heavy lifting at the moment. 

Neil 
OK, Feifei, so, in those examples, we heard people using the expression 'heavy lifting' with 'do' – 'do the heavy lifting'.  But are there other ways of saying it?

Feifei 
Yes, 'the heavy lifting' is almost always after the verb 'do' – 'do the heavy lifting'. And we don't adapt the phrase very much, so we wouldn't usually say 'you're lifting a lot of heavy weights', well, unless we mean literally lifting weights.

Neil 
Yeah. But we can use modifiers, like 'do a lot of the heavy lifting' or 'do most of the heavy lifting'.

Neil 
So, to recap – we've learnt the phrase 'the heavy lifting' which we use when we're talking about doing the most difficult work, the most difficult part of any kind of project.   

Feifei
是的，“heavy lifting” 虽然可以指 “搬运重物”，但在日常生活中，我们更多地用它来指 “工作或任务中最主要或最困难的部分”。在使用中，我们通常说 “do the heavy lifting（挑起重担，承担主要工作）”。我们也可以在 “do” 和 “heavy lifting” 之间加上修饰语，比如 “most of”、“a lot of”。So, “do most of the heavy lifting（承担大部分困难的工作）” 或者 “do a lot of the heavy lifting（承担很多繁重的工作）”。 

Right, so, we've done the heavy lifting of this programme. And we'll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you next time! 

Neil 
Goodbye.