William: Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English, I'm William Kremer.

Wang Fei: And I'm Wang Fei. So how are you today?
你今天如何？

William: Two ticks...
稍等

Wang Fei: What?
什么？

William: Give me two shakes, Wang Fei, I just need to...
稍等下，Wang Fei，我只是需要……

Wang Fei: Eh? What's that?

William: I'll be with you in a jiffy...

Wang Fei: Jiffy. 什么是一个 jiffy? William, what are you talking about?

William: There, done now. I just needed to send a text.
做完了，我只是需要发条短信。

Wang Fei: But what were all those ticks and jiffys?

William: Ahh, and shakes?

Wang Fei: Yes.

William: Well they're all expressions of time, Wang Fei. So they're ways of saying 'just a moment', or 'just a minute'.

Wang Fei: I see. 这都是说“一会儿”“稍等”的意思。我们下面听几个例子。
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Example

A: Can you come and help me lift this sofa?
你能过来帮我抬下这个沙发吗？

B: Yeah, I'll be with you in two ticks.
好的，我马上就来。

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William: Two ticks. In English, we say clocks make this noise: tick tock, tick tock. So two ticks is just like saying two seconds.
稍等，在英语中，我们说钟表发出声音：滴答-滴答。所以2下滴答也就是2秒钟。

Wang Fei: 哦！我明白了，two ticks 字面意思也就是说两秒钟。
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Example

A: I said, can you come and help me here? It's too heavy for me.
你能过来帮我吗？沙发太重了。

B: Yes, yes. I'll be there in two shakes.
好的，我马上到。

Wang Fei: Two shakes 摇两下?

William: Yeah, the full phrase here is 'two shakes of a lamb's tail', but we shorten this to 'two shakes'.

Wang Fei: 摇两下羊的尾巴? 有时候英语的表达真是很奇怪！是不是？！

William: Yes, it can be! I guess that this is because lambs' tails shake very fast, so two shakes is a short time! And finally...

Example

A: Look Neil, this sofa isn't going to lift itself. Get a move on!
Neil，沙发是不会自己长腿走的。过来搬下。

B: I know, I know. I said I'll be with you in a jiffy.
我知道，我知道。我说过马上就去帮你。
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Wang Fei: In a jiffy. 那么 in a jiffy 也是“片刻”的意思是不是？！但是什么是 jiffy 呢？

William: Well, you know what, Wang Fei? Nobody is completely sure of the origin of this word. But it has been in use for over 200 years!
Wang Fei，没人能确定这个词的起源，但是这么用已经200多年了。

Wang Fei: 200 years! That's quite a long time. More than a jiffy!
200年，真长。比“片刻”长多了。

William: Yes, and that's several billion shakes of a lamb's tail.
是的，那得要几十亿次羊尾巴。

Wang Fei: Yes and all those ticks of a clock! Bye for now.

William: Bye bye.
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Example

A: Are you going to help me with the sofa or not?!

B: What sofa? You need help with a sofa?