1. Work the System: To take advantage of the system, often in an unethical way, to get what you want. (ex: Once elected, the corrupt politician began to use his power to work the system and increase his personal fortune).

利用制度，常指用一种不道德的方式去得到想要的东西。（例如：一旦被选上，腐败的政治家就会利用他的权力去钻制度的空子，从而牟取个人利益。）

2. In the Works: When an item or project is currently being produced or developed. (ex: While the band was touring for their newest album, they revealed that their next album was in the works and would soon be available.)

一个产品或者项目正在产生或发展。（例如：当一个乐队为最新专辑巡回演出的时候，他们发布了他们的下一张专辑正在制作中，并且很快发售。）

3. Work(s) like a charm: When something functions perfectly. (ex: After his friend fixed his computer, it worked like a charmfor the rest of the year.)

当某样东西正在完美地运作。（例如：电脑在被他的朋友修好好，在这一年剩下的时间里都运行得很好。）

4. Work Wonders: To have a very positive effect to solve a problem. (ex: He soon discovered that listening to RealLife Radio every day worked wonders for his listening comprehension)

在解决某个问题上有很好的影响（例如：他很快就发现，每天听真生活录音对提高听力理解有很大帮助。）

5. Put to Work: To assign a job or to make somebody work [who was previously inactive] (ex: His school vacation didn’t last long, as his parents soon put him to work in the family business.)

给某人布置一项工作（那个人之前工作并不积极）（例如：他的假期并不长，因为他的父母给他安排了很多家族生意的工作。）

6. Out of Work: To be unemployed, or to not have a job [when one previously had a job] (ex:After losing his job last year, he was out of work for 6 months)

失业或没有工作（以前是有工作的）（例如：自从去年被解雇以后，他失业了六个月。）

7. All in a Day’s Work: Used to express that something is very routine (even though it’s often difficult), and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. (ex: You may say this after finishing a day filled with difficult tasks that are expected in your job.)

用于描述某些常规的东西（尽管这些东西经常是难度很大的），或是描述一个不出彩的东西（例如：你可能会在完成了一天艰难而又常规的工作后，说这句话。）

8. All Work and No Play (Makes Jack a Dull Boy): When one is working so hard that they don’t have the time to enjoy life or cultivate joy for living.

描述某人努力工作，以致于没时间找乐子、享受生活。

9. Piece of Work: An expression meaning that somebody is difficult to get along with in a complex way. Usually said with some degree of disgust. (ex/common collocation: After getting upset with a person for mistreating you in a clever way, you might say “she/he’s a real piece of work.”)

意思是某人很难相处，经常是带有一些厌恶的感觉。（常有的含义：因为被某人巧妙地虐待而感到失落后，你可能会说，他/她真难相处。）

10. Dirty Work: The work nobody else want’s to do. “To do somebody’s dirty work” is to do the unethical, dishonest work that the person doesn’t want to do.(i.e. A mob boss might have somebody do their dirty work- i.e. kill people, get money, conduct deals, etc)

肮脏的活：没人想做的工作。“做某人的脏活儿”是指做别人不想做的不道德的不老实的活儿。（例如：一个暴民老板可能会让别人去干脏活儿，像杀人、赚黑钱、干脏买卖等。）

11. Work Up a Sweat: To put a lot of effort into something, to work hard enough to start to sweat. Often used figuratively.

为某事投入很大心力，因为努力工作，以致流汗。这个词经常用于比喻。

12. Have your work cut out for you: To have a lot of work to do in order to achieve a goal/objective. (ex:before starting a job that’s going to be difficult and last all day, “We better get started. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” )

为了实现一个目标而做大量的工作。（例如：在开始一天艰难工作之时，“我们最好现在开始，我今天有大量棘手的工作。”）

13. Working Hard or Hardly Working? A friendly play on words you can ask somebody to discover how much they are working. Working hard, obviously, means to exert a lot of effort, while hardly working means to not be working very much at all. The humor is that they sound the same but are complete opposites.

一个善意的语言游戏，你可以问一下别人，他们到底干了多少活儿。“Working hard”，很明显，意思是做很多工作，但是“hardly working”的意思是一点儿也不工作。这里面的幽默是，他们听上去差不多但是反应的是截然不同的意思。

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