越来越多的经验告诉我们,若一个短语的字面意思很奇怪或是不合常理,那么它只能是一种习惯用语了,像之前的 bite the bullet,bite the dust 等等,还有 beck and call,字面意思是“小溪和通话”,没有任何的实际意义,它是一个习惯用语,可以意为“随时待命,唯命是从,俯首帖耳”等,寓意: being completely available to someone when needed在需要的时候完全可以被某人利用 to immediately respond when called upon by a particular person在某人要求时立即作出反应 to make oneself immediately available on the request of another person应另一个人的要求立即使自己随时待命 ready to perform tasks for someone immediately it is demanded随时准备为某人执行任务 例如: No matter what time of day it is, she is always at his beck and call.不管一天中的什么时候,她总是听候他的吩咐。 Whatever you need, I'll be on your beck and call to provide them.不管你需要什么,我都会按你的吩咐打电话给你。 解析:此句是 whatever 引导的让步状语从句. The servants at the palace are at the beck and call of the king and the entire royal family.皇宫里的仆人听命于国王和整个皇室。 I knew he was trying to wheedle me into being at his beck and call. 我知道这是他拉拢我,好让我俯首贴耳地为他效劳。With his personal assistant on his beck and call, Adam was able to get a lot of work done in the office today.有随时待命的私人助理,亚当今天可以在办公室完成许多工作。 解析:be able to do sth 强调通过自己的努力而获得的能力。 其实在很早以前,beck 和 beckon 是同一个单词,所以若把习语变成 beckon and call 就好理解了,虽然跟它的寓意还是有差异,但字面意思“招手示意和呼叫”变得有意义了。