When doing business with Native Speakers of English you will hear a lot of metaphors and idiomatic expressions used. They can relate to all sorts of areas like war, fire, health.

    当和母语为英语的人做生意时，你会听到他们使用很多隐喻和惯用用语。它们可以涉及到战争、火灾、健康等各种领域。

    One of the biggest areas is sports. If you want to use these Business English phrases like a native speaker, it would be useful to have an understanding of what they are and what they mean.

    体育是这些隐喻和惯用语涉及最大的领域之一。如果你想像本地人一样使用商务英语短语，了解有哪些短语和它们的意思是非常有用的。

    In this blog post, I’d like to explore the strong relationship that exists between sports and business. If you look at the qualities that sports and business share, you’ll begin to see why Business English has so many sporting metaphors.

    在这篇博文中，我想探讨体育与商业之间的紧密关系。如果你看看体育和商业之间的共同点，你就会明白为什么商业英语有这么多的体育隐喻。

Kick off ——踢开

    Means: to start

                  开始

    e.g. Good Morning everyone. Shall we kick off the meeting then?  (Football)

           大家早上好。那么我们开始开会好吗？（足球）

On target——瞄准目标

    Means: making good progress and likely to achieve what has been planned

               取得很好的进展并有可能实现计划中的目标

    e.g. It looks like we are pretty much on target with this project. (Archery)

          看来我们在这个项目上的目标是有可能实现的。（射箭）

Up to scratch——达到标准

    Means: to be of a good standard

               达到很棒的标准

    e.g. I know we have a great team whose work is really up to scratch. (Track and Field)

          我知道我们有一个很棒的团队，他们的工作真的很出色。（田径）

Know the ropes——知晓内情

    Means: to be able to do something well

               能够做好某事

    e.g. Our new Sales Director has a lot of experience and really knows all the ropes. (Sailing)

          我们的新销售主任经验丰富，而且懂得一切诀窍。（帆船）

Ballpark figure——大概的数字

    Means: a rough estimate

               粗略的估计

    e.g. Can you give me a ballpark figure on the total sales costs? (Baseball)

          你能给我一个大概的总销售成本数吗？（棒球）

Jump the gun——抢跑

    Means: to do something too soon, especially without thinking about it carefully

               做事太快，尤其是不仔细考虑

    e.g. We still have some costs to factor in and I don’t want to jump the gun. (Track and Field)

          我们还有一些成本要考虑，我不想草率决定。（田径）

In pole position——跑道内圈的位置

    Means: to be in the best possible position

               处于有利地位

    e.g. We are in pole position to win the contract. (Motor Racing)

          我们在赢得合同方面处于有利地位。（赛车）

Neck and neck——并驾齐驱

    Means: to have the same chance of winning as someone else

               有与别人一样的获胜机会

    e.g. We are neck and neck with our competitors, so we really need to work hard to maintain our market share. (Horse Racing)

          我们与我们的竞争对手并驾齐驱，所以我们真的需要努力保持我们的市场份额。（赛马）

The ball in our court——我们场上的球

    Means: to be in a position to make the next step

               处在推动下一步的位置上

    e.g. We have done what we can, the ball is in your court now. (Tennis)

          我们已经尽力了，现在该你们来推动下一步如何走下去了。（网球）

Take our eye off the ball——将视线从球上离开

    Means: to make a mistake, especially by doing something carelessly

               犯错误，尤指粗心地做某事

    e.g. We really cannot take our eye off the ball with this deal as it will be a real winner for us. (Football)