The English We Speak 是英语BBC电台为英语学习者量身打造的一档英语节目。节目中，两位主持人用生动形象的例句、场景还原了各种英国俚语在生活中的应用。两位主持人分别为英语母语人士 William Kremer和英语学习者 Wang Fei，节目中不但讲了各种俚语词汇、词组、句子的用法，还会描述它们的起源和演变过程，非常适合英语学习与了解英国文化之用。下面就让我们跟随两位主持人看看英语中表达“很短的时间”有哪些地道的说法。

William: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, I'm William Kremer.

Wang Fei: And I'm Wang Fei. So how are you today?

William: Two ticks...

Wang Fei: What?

William: Give me two shakes, Wang Fei, I just need to...

Wang Fei: Eh? What's that?

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

Wang Fei: In a jiffy. What's a jiffy? William, what are you talking about?

William: There, done now. I just needed to send a text.

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.

· Can you come and help me lift this sofa?

· Yeah, I'll be with you in two ticks.

William: Two ticks. In English, we say clocks make this noise: tick tock, tick tock. So two ticks is just like saying two seconds.

· I said, can you come and help me here? It's too heavy for me.

· Yes, yes. I'll be there in two shakes.

Wang Fei: Hmm. Two shakes?

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

Wang Fei: Oh I see. Two shakes of a lamb's tail. English can be a very weird language!

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...

· Look Neil, this sofa isn't going to lift itself. Get a move on!

· I know, I know. I said I'll be with you in a jiffy.

Wang Fei: In a jiffy. So in a jiffy also means 'in a short space of time'. But what's a jiffy?

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: 200 years! That's quite a long time. More than a jiffy!

William: Yes, and that's several billion shakes of a lamb's tail.

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

William: Bye-bye.

· Are you going to help me with sofa or not?!

· What sofa? You need help with a sofa?

这一段节目中，总结英国口语中表达“很短的时间”的几种说法：two ticks; two shakes; in a jiffy。

因为英语中tick tock表示钟表走动时的“滴答”声，所以two ticks就相当于“两秒钟”，所以可以用来表示“很短的时间”。

two shakes 是two shakes of a lamb's tail 的缩写，因为羊摆尾很快，所以two shakes也就表示“很短的时间”。

关于 in a jiffy，起源不明，但是在英语中已经使用了200多年，主持人后来打趣道“Yes, and that's several billion shakes of a lamb's tail.”(200多年，羊尾巴可以摆几百万次了呀。)

希望你可以将这几个说法用于实际的英语会话中，当朋友催你的时候，不妨说一句：“Just two ticks.”

我们还会陆续为你带来最新的The English We Speak 节目的分享赏析，希望你会喜欢。