Business English is full of idioms that can often confuse non-native speakers of English. It’s therefore important to cover some of these idioms with clients.

商務英語中充滿了讓非母語使用者感到困惑的習語。因此和客戶交流時用到一部分習語很重要。

Idioms are often classed under topics like animals, food, parts of the body, sports and so on.

習語可以按話題分類為動物、食物、身體部位、體育等。

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 sports and games idioms.

本文中，我會探索體育和商務之間的緊密關系。如果你看到體育和商務之間的共同特性，就會明白為什么商務英語中有這么多體育和比賽用語。

Both Business and Sportsr require certain skills:

商務和體育都要求特定的技能：

are competitive

充滿競爭

need self- confidence

需要自信

take planning

有計劃性

use strategies and tactics

使用策略和技巧

take concentration

要求專注

teamwork may be important

團隊合作很重要

Having established their similarities, let’s take a look at ten idioms we use, in what situations and what sport they relate to.

清楚了它們的共同點，讓我們來看10個習語在什么情景下使用，和哪種運動相關。

1. To keep your cards close to your chest – don’t reveal your plans

1. To keep your cards close to your chest——避免透露計劃

Ex: I kept my cards close to my chest during the negotiation. (Card games)

例句：在談判中我藏起了我的底牌。(卡牌游戲)

2. Poker-faced – expressionless (comes from the game of poker where you must not let your face reveal whether you have a good or bad card)

2. Poker-faced——面無表情(來源于撲克游戲中你不能讓你的表情泄露自己牌的好壞)

Ex: The clients sat poker-faced all through my sales pitch. It was so unnerving. (Poker)

例句：在我推銷的整個過程中，客戶們都面無表情地坐著。這令人很不安。(撲克)

3. Knocked me for six – surprised and upset me

3. Knocked me for six——驚訝和不安

Ex: Jenny has just announced that she’s leaving which has knocked me for six. I really enjoyed working with her. (Ball Games)

例句：珍妮剛剛說她要辭職了，這讓我十分沮喪。我很喜歡和她一起工作。(球類運動)