VOA慢速英语 手头很紧: 经济困顿的痛苦

　　King Lear says he would accept necessity's sharp pinch. He means he would have to do without many of the things he always had.

　　Much later, the Times of London newspaper used the expression about bad economic times during the eighteen sixties. It said, "so much money having been spent ... All classes felt the pinch."

　　Worse than feeling the pinch is being up against it. The saying means to be in a lot of trouble.

　　Word expert James Rogers says the word "it" in the saying can mean any and all difficulties. He says the saying became popular in the United States and Canada in the late nineteenth century. Writer George Ade used it in a book called "Artie." He wrote, "I saw I was up against it."

　　Sometimes a business that is up against it will have to throw in the towel. This means to accept defeat or surrender.

　　Throwing in the towel may mean that a company will have to declare bankruptcy. The company will have to take legal steps to let people know it has no money to pay its debts.

　　Word expert Charles Funk says an eighteen seventy-four publication called the Slang Dictionary explains throwing in the towel. It says the words probably come from the sport of boxing, or prizefighting. The book says the saying began because a competitor's face was cleaned with a cloth towel or other material. When a boxer's towel was thrown, it meant he was admitting defeat.

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