Sleep on it 睡一覺 考慮一下

Would you need to think about sleeping on this bed?

The script of this programme 本節(jié)目臺詞

Feifei: 大家好，歡迎收聽由 BBC 英語教學制作的《地道英語》節(jié)目。我是馮菲菲。

Neil: ...and I'm Neil. Hello. We're out shopping today, aren't we Feifei?

Feifei: Yes Neil, Neil 的床壞了，讓我陪他一起去買張新床。家具店里有這么多款式的床，我都看花眼了。So Neil, look at all these beds - there are so many to choose from but which one do you want to buy?

Neil: Well, that one there is massive but it wouldn't fit through my front door!

Feifei: 那邊那張床挺便宜的，不過看起來好像不很結實啊。

Neil: Hey, look at this one... a water bed! Listen to the sound it makes!

Feifei: 水床？哎呀，別開玩笑了。但這你說這么多不同款式，對于我這樣有選擇困難癥的人來說好難呀。我看還得你自己拿主意了。

Neil: Well, Feifei, I'll have to sleep on it.

Feifei: Neil! You can't sleep on that water bed - you haven't bought it yet - 你說你，想在水床上睡一覺，體驗一下，這有點兒怪吧，and anyway, you haven't brought your pyjamas!

Neil: Relax Feifei - I'm not going to sleep here in the shop - that would be embarrassing! When someone says they're going to sleep on it, they mean they're going to spend some time thinking about something before making a final decision.

Feifei: 我就說嗎，怎么能在公眾場合說躺下就躺下呢。原來，英語表達 to sleep on it 用來表示把一個尚需解決的問題暫時擱放，等花時間仔細考慮清楚后再做最后決定。

Neil: Right! So I'm going to think about which is the best bed to buy and come back in the morning, OK? Let's hear some other examples of the phrase 'to sleep on it'...

Examples

• We couldn't decide which car to buy so we decided to sleep on it - we didn't want to buy the wrong one!
• Thanks for your job offer but I need some time to think about it. Let me sleep on it and I'll give you an answer tomorrow.
• He told me he'd have to sleep on it before he could agree to my request for a pay rise.

Feifei: 形象的來說就是“睡一覺，考慮清楚再做決定” to sleep on it... hmm... but why 'sleep'?

Neil: Because usually you think about your decision overnight - you literally go to sleep before waking up the next day and deciding what to do, when you've had more rest.

Feifei: 之所以用 sleep on it 是因為很多時候當我們舉棋不定，拿不定注意的時候，都會暫時不做決定，睡一覺等第二天考慮清楚了后才 make a final decision 做最后決定。It sounds like a good idea but hold on Neil...

Neil: What's wrong?

Feifei: You can't 'sleep on it' overnight because you haven't got a bed to sleep on!

Neil: Let's not lose sleep over it - you've got a spare bed haven't you?

Feifei: What?!

Neil: It's another idiom Feifei but I'll explain it another time. Come on let's go.

Both: Bye.