美国习惯用语keep one's eye on the ball详解

人们把眼睛称为"灵魂的窗户"、"世界的窗户"以及"心灵的窗户"等等。怪不得eye这么一个只有三个字母组成的字出现在那末多的美国成语和俗语里。

"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."

这位垒球手说："我们那时正在芝加哥和当地一个球队比赛，看球的人群又喊又嚷，还挥动手绢想分散我们的注意力。可是，我集中精力，使出所有的劲儿来打球，结果打了一个本垒打。这下，当我沿着垒跑的时候，芝加哥的观众就变得很安静了。"

"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."

这位老板说："汤姆，你的销售量在过去半年中一直很低。你在这段时间里一共才卖了十七辆汽车。你还是集中注意力地工作，不然，你恐怕得另找工作了。"

"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."

Eye-opener的另一意思是：开阔了眼界。请听下面这个例子：

"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."