Heavy lifting 一項任務中最困難的部分

內容簡介

表達 “heavy lifting” 除瞭可以指 “搬運重物” 以外，還可以指 “工作中最主要的方面” 或 “任務中最困難的部分”。聽本期地道英語節目，學習如何在日常生活和工作中使用 “heavy lifting”。

文字稿

（關於臺詞的備註: 請註意這不是廣播節目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能沒有體現錄制、編輯過程中對節目做出的改變。）

Feifei
大傢好，歡迎收聽 AYYBLOG英語教學的 “地道英語” 節目。在每期節目中，我們都會介紹一個英語母語人士或講英語流利的人會用到的表達。I’m Feifei and I’m here with Neil.

Neil
Hi there, Feifei.

Feifei
這期節目中我們要介紹的表達是 “heavy lifting”。首先，我和 Neil 將用英語來講解這個表達的用法，在節目最後，我將會用漢語進行歸納總結。

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” 雖然可以指 “搬運重物”，但在日常生活中，我們更多地用它來指 “工作或任務中最主要或最困難的部分”。在使用中，我們通常說 “do the heavy lifting（挑起重擔，承擔主要工作）”。我們也可以在 “do” 和 “heavy lifting” 之間加上修飾語，比如 “most of”、“a lot of”。So, “do most of the heavy lifting（承擔大部分困難的工作）” 或者 “do a lot of the heavy lifting（承擔很多繁重的工作）”。

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.